Thread by @Alonso_GD

"yeah yeah but it doesn't matter anyway"
Sure, this Opinion will not stop Israel in Gaza. But there's some things you should consider before dismissing this historic Opinion... 🧵

This case was never meant to be a reaction to Gaza. It began in Jan. 2023 as part of a broader effort to use the law in defence of Palestinian rights. It is meant to help increase the tools at the disposal of Palestinians. In this regard, it has been extremely successful

The ICJ, the highest tribunal on intl law, has essentially confirmed that Israel is an apartheid state, that it must dismantle all settlements and that it must allow the return of those Palestinians it displaced. This alone is huge but not because of what it can accomplish today

All of these were topics for "future negotiations". If the status quo is illegal and violates jus cogens rules, then this changes the leverage that can be deployed to turn this status quo into a permanent situation. This strenghtens Palestine's and weakens Israel's positions

You need to see this case in the context of a much larger arc, going back decades. There was a time when Palestine barely registered, it was a seat in the Arab League and nothing else. Today, it is a UN observer state with cases in the ICJ and ICC. Incremental progress matters

Not to mention, of course, the power of discourse. The Law is not some kind of untouchable monolyth that decides right from wrong. It rises and falls depending on whether people believe that it is actually law.

If the default position is that there is a ✨state✨, the only ✨democracy✨ in the region with the ✨most moral✨ army in the world fighting a people reduced to an orientalist terrorist cliche, this imbues the law with a certain content

When the law itself, however, states that this is not a democracy but an apartheid state that is committing injustices against a people whose rights are systematically violated and discriminated, the power of the competing hegemonic interpretation wanes

Do not discount the power of authoritative statements in the formation of world order. Especially when world order is already changing so fundamentally. We live in a world where South Africa can sue Israel before the ICJ - that couold not happen when I was a child

So it is not just that you should not discount how the internal mechanics of legal systems work, but that you should also appraise how this law can be used by new actors in new ways that have not been tried yet.

All in all, yes, tomorrow will look very similar to today - but it will not be exactly like today. Nor will the day after or the day after. And before you notice, the world will have changed before your eyes.

Celebrate victories, they are few and scarce.