And even bigger aspect of international law that people don’t seem to understand is who writes international law.
What we call “international law” is actually just a variety of treaties most countries have agreed to follow. So international law is actually just a vague consensus among the leaders of the countries of the world.
So international law doesn’t actually prohibit world leaders from doing the things they want to do. Because they wouldn’t agree to treaties that wouldn’t allow them to do what they want.
War is something countries do, so war is not against international law. But there are defined rules to conducting a war in international law. Sometimes there are civilian casualties in a war, so civilians casualties in a war doesn’t automatically mean the country broke international law. Blockades? That’s something countries want to do so that’s legal, in fact the rules around a blockade is defined in the oldest of international law.
Countries have militaries that wear uniforms so there’s additional protections for soldiers in uniform than there are for combatants that aren’t in uniform (like Hamas). Uniformed soldiers held captive are prisoners of war and must be released when the war is over. Non-uniformed combatants are basically stateless criminals and can be held indefinitely even after a war is concluded. Countries don’t need to take civilians hostage, so that’s against international law.
So Hamas taking hostages, civilian, off duty soldiers, even uniformed soldiers on duty, it’s all illegal. They aren’t following the rules of war and are criminals under international law.
As long as Israel follows the rules of conducting blockades and rules around how to conduct a war, these are legal under international law no matter how much people want to scream genocide.
And even bigger aspect of international law that people don’t seem to understand is who writes international law.
What we call “international law” is actually just a variety of treaties most countries have agreed to follow. So international law is actually just a vague consensus among the leaders of the countries of the world.
So international law doesn’t actually prohibit world leaders from doing the things they want to do. Because they wouldn’t agree to treaties that wouldn’t allow them to do what they want.
War is something countries do, so war is not against international law. But there are defined rules to conducting a war in international law. Sometimes there are civilian casualties in a war, so civilians casualties in a war doesn’t automatically mean the country broke international law. Blockades? That’s something countries want to do so that’s legal, in fact the rules around a blockade is defined in the oldest of international law.
Countries have militaries that wear uniforms so there’s additional protections for soldiers in uniform than there are for combatants that aren’t in uniform (like Hamas). Uniformed soldiers held captive are prisoners of war and must be released when the war is over. Non-uniformed combatants are basically stateless criminals and can be held indefinitely even after a war is concluded. Countries don’t need to take civilians hostage, so that’s against international law.
So Hamas taking hostages, civilian, off duty soldiers, even uniformed soldiers on duty, it’s all illegal. They aren’t following the rules of war and are criminals under international law.
As long as Israel follows the rules of conducting blockades and rules around how to conduct a war, these are legal under international law no matter how much people want to scream genocide.