https://arab.news/bqjk3
In the face of the international legal and political systems’ paralyzing silence and utter failure to hold Israel accountable for its genocide in Gaza, international civil society has refused to stand idly by. Instead, it continues to forge a path, presenting essential working models for what true justice in Palestine must look like.
The latest, and arguably most important, expression of this global conscience is the Gaza Tribunal. Its final session concluded in Istanbul on Oct. 26. The tribunal, launched in London in November 2024 and modeled on the Russell Tribunal into America’s conduct during the Vietnam War, has a mission to activate global civil society and provide a comprehensive “people’s record” by rigorously documenting Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
Its activities involved earlier hearings in Sarajevo and consolidating findings across three thematic chambers: international law, international relations and world order, and history, ethics and philosophy. The Istanbul session culminated with a so-called jury of conscience issuing a powerful moral judgment that accused Israel of systematic exterminatory violence.
These civil society-led tribunals aim to fill the ethical and legal void created by the international system’s failure to confront the war crimes carried out by powerful states that are, by all appearances, practically immune from accountability.
