“Operation Cast Lead and the Distortion of International Law”

An Al-Haq position paper, released on 6 April 2009 (Al-Haq is the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists)

Israel’s claim to ‘self-defence’  as the legal pretext for ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ the latest and most  destructive in a string of regular large-scale military offensives against  the Gaza Strip since 2006, received widespread and often unconditional  acceptance from the international diplomatic community as justification for  the Israeli attacks. ‘Operation Cast Lead’ was not the first time that Israel  has cited Article 51 of the UN Charter as justification for military  operations or unlawful acts within or against the Occupied Palestinian  Territory (OPT); nor, in fact, the last.

In October 2003, Israel attempted  to invoke self-defence as the basis for the construction of its Annexation  Wall within the West Bank; asserting to the UN General Assembly that “the  fence is a measure wholly consistent with the right of States to self‑defence  enshrined in Article 51 of the Charter.” The International Court of Justice,  however, concluded that “Article 51 of the UN Charter has no relevance  in this case” and could not be invoked. In March 2009, two months after the  end of ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev,  sent a letter to the UN Security Council, similar to the letter dispatched  immediately prior to the launching of ‘Operation Cast Lead’, to inform the  international community that Israel “will not tolerate, and will respond  accordingly to attacks against its citizens” and that Israel “has the  inherent duty to exercise its right to self-defence enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.”

Taking into account Israel’s  belligerent and repeatedly unlawful conduct during ‘Operation Cast Lead,’  Al-Haq deplores and condemns Israel’s continuous invocation of Article 51 of  the UN Charter as legal justification for disproportionate and often  indiscriminate military operations in or against the OPT. Furthermore, Al-Haq  is alarmed at the seemingly uncontested acceptance of Israel’s claim to  self-defence by the international diplomatic community, and would like to  make it emphatically clear that Article 51 of the UN Charter cannot be  invoked as justification for military operations within or against the OPT.

Al-Haq’s position paper: Operation Cast Lead and the Distortion of  International Law: A Legal Analysis of Israel’s Claim to Self-Defence under  Article 51 of the UN Charter