Post-October 7th International Criminal Law and Accountability:Emerging Legal Concepts and Terminology
By: Prof. Mutaz M. Qafisheh, PhD in International Law, Graduate Institu te, Geneva, Professor of International Law, Hebron University, Palestine, Chairperson, Law for Palestine Organization, UK / Email: mutazq@hebron.edu or mmqafisheh@gmail.com 10 May 2024
Submitted to: Global Tribunal on Palestine Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 June 2024
Abstract: The war on Gaza has transformed international law. Before October 2023, all eyes were focused on the Russian-Ukraine war and its impact on declining international unipolar order. However, the Israeli bombardment that targeted all facets of life in a livestream genocide, and States (in) action thereto, uncovered inherent deficits in the international legal order. Until recently, reform efforts centered on the imbalance in the United Nations system, particularly the Security Council and its veto power and the emerging multipolar world. The unprecedented war, with fears of a wider regional conflict and global repercussions, has accelerated debates on the urgency for multipolarism. This, in turn, would shape the character of international law. This paper explores a set of novel concept arising out of the Gaza onslaught that may be elaborated within policy and academic circles. Criminal law, historically, knew certain terms to characterize process of mass killing and massive destruction, such as genocide, democide, educide, ecocide, identitycide, femicide and pedicide. However, the unimaginable scale of devastation in Gaza has brought to the fore unconceivable terminology that criminologists and jurists are yet to digest. These include: unicidse (demolition of entire universities, elimination of professors), medicide (deliberately targeting hospitals, medical personal, ambulances), mediacide (assassination of journalists, targeting media institutions), agricide (systematic bulldozing of agriculture land), animocide (liquidation of animal and livestock), unurwacide, electricide, watercide, juricide (leveling courts, bar association, murdering of judges and lawyers), cemeterycide and, indeed, Palestinicide. Such terms, and several more, need to be analyzed, researched and crystalized with a view to comprehend what has happened in Gaza and the how international may correspond to sanction such atrocities. Key words: Palestine, Israel, Gaza, murder typology, criminal law, genocide, legal terminology
