The European Union in the Dock in Barcelona

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine condemns EU complicity in Israel's crimes.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine finds the European Union guilty of complicity in Israel's crimes against the Palestinian People, calls for the suspension of the EU-Israel Preferential Trade Agreement, and endorses the civil society campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

The European Union in the Dock in Barcelona
by Raymond Deane

The first session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RTP) took place in Barcelona on March 1-3.

The RTP is a citizens' initiative inheriting the mantle of the Russell Tribunals on Vietnam (initiated by the English philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967), Latin America (1974-6) and Iraq (2004). Although it has no legal status, it acts - in its own words - "as a court of the people, a Tribunal of conscience" that seeks to indict "injustices and violations of international law... that are recognised but continue with complete impunity due to the lack of political will of the international community." Its motto is: “May this Tribunal prevent the crime of silence”, a quotation from Russell that acquires some added irony in view of the total silence with which the RTP has been greeted by the mainstream media.

The Tribunal was held in the conference hall of the “illustre Collegi d'Advocats de Barcelona”, after the orginal venue (in Barcelona University) was withdrawn at the last moment owing to “unforeseen” renovation works – an implausible pretext undoubtedly disguising capitulation to the Zionist lobby that exists even in Catalonia.

Previous Russell Tribunals have been dismissed with the sneer that they constituted a “kangaroo court” with a foreordained verdict. In the case of the RTP, the make-up of the jury might seem to have confirmed such suspicions, consisting as it did of eight “personalities” most of whom have a track record of opposition to Israel's policies: Mairead Maguire (Northern Irish Nobel laureate, recently among those kidnapped by the Israeli navy as they attempted to breach the blockade of Gaza), Ronnie Kasrils (former South African government minister), Gisèle Halimi (former French Ambassador to UNESCO), Michael Mansfield (President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, UK), José Pallin (Spanish magistrate), Cynthia McKinney (former US presidential candidate and victim of AIPAC, the US Zionist lobby), Alberto San Juan (Spanish actor), and Aminata Traoré (author, politician and activist from Mali).

In fact Israel's culpability was taken for granted by the RTP as long established under international law, and hence was not at issue. The accused in this trial was the European Union, three empty seats symbolising the failure of the EU to present arguments for the defence. The jurors were required to consider six broad questions (somewhat abridged here):
1.Have the EU and its member states breached their obligation to promote and ensure respect for the Palestinian people's right of self-determination? Have they cooperated with a view to halting any serious violation of that right? Have they aided or abetted any violation of that right?
2.Have they breached their obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in the case of the blockade of Gaza and the “Cast Lead” military operation conducted by Israel in 2008/9? Have they aided or abetted any violation of that law?
3.Have they breached their obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and the right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty over their natural resources in the context of Israel's building of settlements and pillage of nature resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory? Have they aided or abetted any violation of these laws and rights?
4.Have they breached their obligation to ensure respect for the principle of non-acquisition of territory by force in the case of the annexation by Israel of East Jerusalem? Have they aided or abetted any violation of that law?
5.Have they breached their obligation to ensure respect for international law in connection with the construction of the wall in the OPT? Have they aided or abetted any violation of that law?
6.In the light of the foregoing, have they breached their obligation to ensure respect for international law and European law in the context of the agreements signed between the EU and the State of Israel?

Having considered over two gruelling days a wide range of expert presentations on such questions as “The right to self-determination of the Palestinian people” (including a moving speech by Darragh Murray, an Irishman working with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights), “The annexation of East Jerusalem”, “Settlements and the plundering of natural resources” (which featured a powerful intervention by Irish barrister James Phillips), “The EU-Israel Association Agreement”, “The Gaza Blockade and Operation Cast Lead” (including a vivid presentation on illegal weapons by former Irish Army Coloner Desmond Travers, a member of the UN fact-finding mission that produced the Goldstone Report), and “The Wall built in the OPT”, the jury presented its conclusions at a packed press conference on 3d March.

The RTP, having established the illegality of Israel's actions, found that the EU and its member states “violate international law and the internal legal order of the EU as set down in the EU Treaty either by failing to take the measures that Israel’s conduct requires them to take or by contributing directly or indirectly to such conduct.” The Irish legal experts were specifically thanked for their input on the question of the Lisbon Treaty with which, after all, they have recently had so much cause to familiarise themselves.

The Tribunal found that the EU had breached "specific rules of international law that require the EU and its member states to respond to violations of international law committed by Israel", and "the general rules of international law which require the EU and its member states to respond to violations on international law committed by Israel", and that the EU and its member states had failed to "refrain from contributing to the violations of international law committed by Israel."

The Tribunal called on the EU to suspend its privileged trading agreement with Israel, to facilitate the exercise of Universal Jurisdiction (whereby suspected war criminals may be arrested in any jurisdiction) within each of its member states, and "to impose the necessary sanctions on its partner Israel through diplomatic, trade and cultural measures in order to end the impunity that it has enjoyed for decades." The Tribunal endorsed the civil society campaign of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and called for its global extension: "Should the EU lack the necessary courage" to end Israel's impunity, "the Tribunal counts on the citizens of Europe to bring the necessary pressure to bear on it by all appropriate means."

From an activist point of view, the importance of these conclusions is at least twofold. Firstly, the EU can no longer maintain to be either “neutral” in the so-called Israel-Palestine conflict nor to constitute in some way a counterbalance to the total engagement of the USA on the side of Israel: the EU is fully and criminally complicit with Israel's violations of international law, and the RTP provides detailed legal arguments to back this up. In particular, the Tribunal constituted an encouragement to redouble the campaign for suspension of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement with Israel, which grants that state massive trading privileges that are conditional on the observance by both sides of human rights norms.

Secondly, the RTP endorses BDS as the weapon of choice for civilian society in its campaign for Palestinian rights. Many of us present at the Tribunal were as astonished as we were delighted by this endorsement, but apparently there was no difference of opinion among the Jurors as to its appropriateness.

More details on the activities of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine may be read on its website: http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.net/

(Raymond Deane is a composer and political activist)