It is not enough to cry “Free Palestine” in a march or a protest. Your job isn’t done now that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu. Yes, it’s meaningful that the ICC issued criminal charges against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. We are witnessing a seismic shift in European and Amerikan opinion of so-called “israel.” But never forget that the Hague is a useless child of liberalism. Remember that genocide and land theft of the Palestinian people has been on-going for 75 years, and in all that time not a single warrant was issued for any of the numberless zionist war criminals who have murdered, raped, and burned their way across Palestine.

By way of background, the ICC was established in 2002 with the purpose of investigating and prosecuting war criminals. In the 21 years since its inception the court has heard 31 cases, issued 46 arrest warrants, detained 21 people, 17 people remain at large, issued 9 summonses to appear,  issued 10 convictions and 4 acquittals and charges have been dropped against 7 people due to their deaths.

The Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes.

• First, Genocide, “characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” 
• Second, Crimes Against Humanity, “serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.”
• Third, War Crimes, “grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict and include, for instance, the use of child soldiers; the killing or torture of persons such as civilians or prisoners of war; intentionally directing attacks against hospitals, historic monuments, or buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes.
• Fourth, “the Crime of Aggression, “the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State.”

On May 21, 2024 the ICC issued two warrants for the zionist leadership: one for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of israel, and one for Yoav Gallant, the Minister of “Defence” of israel. The warrants alledge that “from at least” October 8 2023, Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for: the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health or cruel treatment, wilful killing/murdering, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, extermination and/or murder, persecution as a crime against humanity and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity. The ICC Prosecutor, Karim A.A. Khan, states that there has been “widespread and systematic attack[s] against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.”

You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from liberals and “leftists” who think that these warrants mean that the “adults” have taken charge and now all will be fixed. While there are many things wrong with our society, chief among them is the idea that we as individuals cannot do anything and we must hope and pray that the powers that be will finally take up the mantle of justice. History and current events continue to show us otherwise.

International law is predominantly used as a tool of imperialism and capitalism. Look no further than the austerity campaigns that the Inernational Monitary Fund has forced on Jordan and Pakiastan (just to list a few) or the current genocide in Congo where corporations are allowed to hire private militias to displace, starve and murder millions of people with impunity. Notably, since its inception in 2002 the court has failed to bring to justice any figures from major capitalist powers. This is not meant to downplay the importance of those war criminals that have been brought to justice, but it is clear that the ICC typically only issues warrants for individuals who are not part of the capitalist elite. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Barack Obama immediately come to mind as perfect candidates to be tried for their roles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and drone strikes on civilians.

What is the basis of international law? Force. Ask any international lawyer what governing power can control the behavior of a “sovereign” state, and they will tell you: force. The fear of being invaded, of economic sanctions, of force is the only thing that backs international law. The NATO alliance, the progenitors of this regime, are not afraid of the ICC because no other country will ever force them to abide by its rulings.

Leaders from Africa have astutely pointed to the fact that until January 2016, the nine situations which the ICC had investigated were all exclusively in African countries. The ICC largely ignores war crimes when they are perpetuated by white and rich countries. Another glaring issue with the ICC is that it is “financed by contributions from its states’ parties” as well as “international corporations, individuals, and other entities”.

House Speaker Mike Johnson stated on May 22, 2024, that “if the ICC is allowed to threaten Israel’s leaders, we know that America will be next.” Anthony “Butcher” Blinken, the Secretary of State, told the melting dough-boy Lindsey Graham that he would support a bipartisan effort to sanction the ICC, not only for “israel,” but to protect future Amerikan interests.

On June 4th, 2024, the United State House passed a bill for sanctions against the ICC. It passed by a vote of 247-155. The “yea” vote included 42 Democrats. While it seems unlikely this bill will pass in the House, were the sanctions to be imposed they would “revoke any U.S. visas held by ICC officials and restrict them from making property transactions in the U.S.”

Of course war criminals like our leaders don’t want to see other war criminals face judgment. What would our Amerikan war criminals do if they actually had to face the consequences of their policy decisions? As Amerikans, it’s their god- and country-given right to commit war crimes with impunity. 

The very year the ICC was established, George Bush and his administration announced it was “renouncing” U.S. signature on the treaty” and “vetoed continuation of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia in an effort to obtain permanent immunity for U.N. peacekeepers” from the ICC. Additionally, “U.S. officials launched a campaign around the world to obtain bilateral agreements that would grant immunity for Americans from the court’s authority.” In a transparent act of Amerika’s violent imperialist interests Bush signed into law the “American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002.” This law authorizes “the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the court, which is located in The Hague.” Additionally, the law provided “for the withdrawal of U.S. military assistance from countries ratifying the ICC treaty, and restricts U.S. participation in United Nations peacekeeping unless the United States obtains immunity from prosecution.”

In order for there to be any true justice for Palestinians a much broader net of accountability must be cast. Netanyahu and Gallant are not the only people leading the slaughter in occupied Palestine. There are many “israeli” officials who are just as complicit. Law for Palestine has a database which is continuously updates its lists of “500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide.” This list includes the following categories: army personnel and officers, decision makers, and former government officials. This list would be a good start in terms of making a docket of who else should be airlifted and dropped in the center of a court that is actually meant to deal with war criminals. Those who are active participants in the genocide of Palestine are not limited to “israelis,” Biden is among many world leaders who continually provide aid and resources to the war criminals of “israel.”

Finally, as if any other proof was needed that international law is a smoke and mirrors show, a mere 48 hours after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) made a ruling requiring “israel” to halt its assault on Rafah and reopen the Rafah border crossings, “israel” launched over 60 additional air strikes on Rafah. (It should also not inspire confidence in international law that the ICJ chose not to rule for an immediate and/or permanent ceasefire.)

It is only through collective action that these many monsters will finally get a sliver of what they are due for the death and destruction that they have caused. If we want to look for a court system that is equipped to handle the zionist war criminal case list that should exist we will have to make it. The format of the Nuremberg trials would certainly be a good jumping off point. There, after the atrocities of WWII “199 defendants were tried, 161 were convicted, and 37 were sentenced to death.”

Do not think that the battle is over simply because warrants for two people, in a “country” of 9.5 million, have been issued. As Robespierre said: “Peoples do not judge in the same way as courts of law; they do not hand down sentences, they throw thunderbolts; they do not condemn kings, they drop them back into the void; and this justice is worth just as much as that of the courts.”

1. Financial Divestment

Divest all of Columbia’s finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine. Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments.

2. Academic Boycott

Sever academic ties with Israeli universities, including the Global Center in Tel Aviv, the Dual Degree Program with Tel Aviv University, and all study-abroad programs, fellowships, and research collaborations with Israeli academic institutions.

3. Stop the Displacement

No land grabs, whether in Harlem, Lenapehoking, or Palestine. Cease expansion, provide reparations, and support housing for low-income Harlem residents. No development by Columbia without real community Control.

4. No Policing On Campus

End the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus, including through university disciplinary processes. Defund Public Safety and disclose and sever all ties with the NYPD.

5. End the Silence

Release a public statement calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, denouncing the ongoing genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, and call on government officials to do so too.

Columbia is the largest landowner in New York City. Its endowment totals $13.64 billion. The students of the encampment have compiled and distributed a chart showing how exactly Columbias Trustees directly profit from the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. 

The students of Columbia have learned the meaning of solidarity over the past year.  During a Palestinian “divestment now” rally in January, two pro-apartheid students, both former  terrorists in the Occupation Forces (IOF), attacked demonstrators using a chemical weapon. They sprayed activists with “Skunk,” a chemical developed by the zionist occupation and used for crowd control in the West Bank. As would be expected, the zionist NYPD has failed to make any arrests in connection with this attack. The school then took action against students who dissented against the genocide by “dismissing or removing five faculty members from the classroom, suspending 15 students and suspending two student groups — Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.”

The current protest began on April 17th. That same day, the campus administration threatened protesters with suspension and arrest, but no arrests were made. The University shut down the campus and blocked the entrances. They then called in the NYPD, who loomed in military equipment while hundreds of other students and community members stood in witness of their fellow classmates. Support protests for the encampment came together outside the school. 

As Columbia’s ruling-class administrators called on the jackbooted NYPD, members of Congress were questioning the administration about reports of so-called “antisemitism” on campus. As is typical for zionists, the hearing was bloated with the tired and putrid stance that anti-zionism equates to  antisemitism. “Inquiries” included the incredible question (which I am sad to inform you actually came out of a government official’s mouth in 2024) by Rick Allen (R-Ga.), asking “Are you familiar with Genesis 12:3?” Allen followed up stating “It was a covenant that God made with Abraham … If you bless Israel, I will bless you. If you curse Israel, I will curse you … Do you consider that a serious issue? I mean, do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?” (The only consolation this writer currently has is that conservatives are at least saying the quiet part out loud. Though, these days it seems the most infuriating is watching Liberals feign concerned sincerity.)

School staff, who were primarily people of color and women, entered the encampment to try to negotiate its disbandment. This is not the first time we have seen the ruling class has chosen individuals from oppressed backgrounds and nations to use as a battering ram against their community. As professor Ruha Benjamin passionately stated in her recent Spelman Convocation 2024 speech: “Black faces in high places are not going to save us. Just look at the Black woman’s hand — [U.S. ] Ambassador at the UN — voting against a ceasefire in Gaza.” 

Initially it seemed that Columbia was willing to work with students towards a resolution. After meeting with students, the administration agreed that it would provide financial transparency for investments with the University Senate executive committee.

On the encampment’s second day, rather than working with the students, the administration set the dogs of capital, the police, upon their students. In the morning three students received an email notifying them that Columbia had suspended them, evicted them, and that if they remained on campus they would be arrested for trespassing. By doing this, the University immediately deprived students of their housing, belongings, education, meal plans, and health insurance. This was all done in service to Colombia’s profitable relationship with the genocidal ethno-religious settler-colony called “israel.” In the letter to the NYPD, Minouche Shafik claims that “I have determined that the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University.”

Suspended students later received an email from Barnard’s CARES (Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services) that they had 15 minutes to gather their belongings.

It is worth noting that the mascots for capital acting as its agents in this showdown are the Muslim university president of Columbia, the Black mayor of NYC, and the Latino Chief of Police. Around 1pm the police descended on the encampment and arrested over 100 students and two NLG (National Lawyers Guild) Legal Observers while employees of the school took the student’s property and, in a move inspired by the state’s draconian treatment of houseless people, stomped on food and poured out water. 

The NLG Legal Observers, recognizable by their neon green hats, are frequently present at protests. They attend protests as a neutral party that is there to monitor and document police behavior towards protestors.

Columbia Administration and the NYPD have made concerted efforts to block the press’s access to the students, leading to the Columbia School of Journalism posting the following on their Twitter: “If you are a credentialed member of the media and have been denied access to campus, please send us a DM [direct message]. We will facilitate access to campus.”

The students suspended by the school were identified by the University as “leaders” of the encampment — which raises the question of how a private institution identified them.

All this from a school that offers an M.A. in Human Rights and courses titled: Indigenous Rights and Settler Colonialism in North America, Children’s Rights Advocacy, Gender-Based Violence and Human Rights, Refugees, Citizenship, and Migration.

Columbia hosts a “Center for Palestine Studies” which includes an Edward Said Archival Collection housed in a special reading room, a lecture series, and a research fellowship in Edward Said’s name. Said, the author of Orientalism, was a world renowned Palestinian scholar and a lifelong advocate. Surely, he is rolling in his grave as his image is used to repress the fighters for Palestinian freedom.

The current protest echos other student movements at Columbia including an anti-racism and anti-Vietnam War protest in 1968 where students had a weeklong standoff with police. Students held the dean hostage for 24 hours. Cops eventually  stormed the campus and arrested over 700 people. On April 4, 1985, “students chained closed the doors to Columbia’s administrative building, Hamilton Hall, and sat on the steps, blockading the entrance. They were there to protest the University’s investments in corporations that operated in Apartheid South Africa”. Within two hours 250 others joined the protest. On April 8th, with 5,000 students in attendance, Jesse Jackson made a speech at the encampment. The blockade lasted 21 days, ending on April 25th.

In another move of stunning cognitive dissonance, Columbia has this statement on its website about the 1968 protests:

“Columbia is a far different place today than it was in the spring of 1968 … The fallout dogged Columbia for years … Columbia now has one of the most socio-economically diverse student bodies among its peer institutions. It has added a new campus designed to be open to the community and pursues fields of inquiry unheard of a half-century ago. Columbia is commemorating the 50th anniversary of those long-ago events with a deep dive of scholarship and exhibits chronicling what happened then and its effects today.”

The police have used drones, helicopters, and hundreds of cops (derogatory) to surveil and detain peaceful students who in the words of NYPD Chief John Chell said the “clear and present danger” was identified by Columbia, not by the NYPD. The NYPD reported no violence or injuries associated with the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” “To put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” Chell said. 

By April 22, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment had Community Guidelines. Which are:

1. We all commit to remain grounded in why we enter this space — as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people facing the deadliest year in a 75 year long, U.S. (and Columbia) -funded, genocide of the Palestinian people.

2. No desecration of the land, no littering. Please pick up your trash.

3. We recognize our role as visitors, and for many of us, colonizers, on this land. We camp with an acute awareness that we do so on colonized Lenapehoking land, which after being ethnically cleansed of its Indigenous population has experienced subsequent waves of racist displacement, including most recently by Columbia University in the displacement of the Black and brown Harlem community.

4. No drug use/alcohol consumption inside the camp.

This may make people uncomfortable, increase risk of police targeting, and ultimately this camp exists in service of Palestine, and “partying” in such a space would be an offense to the cause that has brought us here. If people would like to smoke, they can do so outside of the lawn. We don’t want to police each other or each other’s patterns of substance use, but want to ensure that people feel comfortable in the space.

5. Respect personal boundaries — tight quarters are not an excuse to cross physical boundaries without Affirmative consent.

6. We commit to never photographing or videotaping another community member without their affirmative consent.

7. We commit to not share the names or details of anyone we meet in this camp space with someone in the administration as we realize they could be targeted and this could cause them great harm. We keep us safe, that includes refusing to comply with any demands if the NYPD, private investigators, or Columbia admin try to force us to disclose the identities of any of our fellow students!

8. We commit to assuming best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing.

9. Please think of community members when making decisions about autonomous action. Not everyone has consented to the same levels of risk, but everyone will be affected by decisions that community members make. 

10. We commit to not engaging with zionist counter-protestors. They seek to distract us, and we must remain steadfast and unified.

Cornell West, Susan Sarandon, Norman Finklestein, and Chris Smalls have all made appearances and encouraged the students. While encouraging, it is important that this movement remains self-governed and is not co-opted by outsiders and moderates. 

Arresting over 100 students has backfired on Columbia. While the arrests were taking place, other students moved to a different campus lawn to set up a new encampment. Protests in solidarity with the students have spawned around New York City. The University of North Carolina launched their own encampment protest, as has Yale, Emerson College, MIT, Tuft University, U.C. Berkeley, and the University of Michigan. Miami University in Ohio held a solidarity demo. Boston and Harvard University held walkouts. Student actions continue to spring up all across the U.S. and have jumped the ocean to include similar actions in the U.K. and Australia. 

In the face of intense state violence and academic sanctions the Columbia student’s encampment is still going strong. However, in order to achieve their aims and express true solidarity with Palestine, the encampment must escalate towards revolutionary militancy. This means occupying more than the designated lawn. Most importantly, the groups who organized the encampments must become politically organized, and form democratic committees to resist all co-option, capitulation, and destruction of the encampment. Only by becoming organized can the student movement forge itself into a weapon of revolutionary action, and deal the university administrators and the zionists a devastating blow.