Gaza Takes Over the Agenda

While attending a League of Arab States conference on post-conflict justice in the Arab world, I sat and listened as the Iraqi Minister of Justice offered suggestions as his conference counterparts discussed the drafting and phrasing of their official denunciations of the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Thoughts of a Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline seemed like a relic from a now bygone, puzzling era.

I had been invited to the conference after submitting a paper discussing the incomplete and flawed, yet historically consequential, Iraqi experience with post-conflict justice following the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the fall of the Ba’athist regime. Yet the more granular and legalistic goals of the conference were quickly overwhelmed by the carnage that dominated news coverage and private discussions. The manner in which Gaza took over the conference was a reminder writ small of how the issue of Palestine has managed to insinuate itself through cynical manipulation and genuine outrage onto all aspects of the political agenda of the Arab world. At this point it is unclear which roads run through where and in what sequence, but the question of Palestine still holds significant sway over the hearts and minds of the Middle East. 

The endless official oratory on the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza reflected longstanding pro-forma denunciations of Israeli actions and token Arab solidarity with the people of Gaza and the Palestinian cause. But, equally importantly, it also reflected a deep-seated and palpable public anger at the human consequences of the offensive. The ongoing conflict in Gaza was used as a cudgel by many participants to undermine faith in the credibility of international institutions and discredit international efforts in enforcing international criminal law. Needless to say, the Sudanese delegation was probably delighted by the distraction.

Perhaps as a result of the makeup of the official delegations, the regional divisions that were vividly on display when Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mesha’l took up his seat at the Qatar emergency summit on Gaza were subdued, and officials were able to agree to denunciatory language that steered clear of offending their Egyptian and Arab League hosts.

The goals of the conference were multiple: to examine the limited historical precedents for post-conflict justice in the Arab world; to encourage national incorporation of substantive international criminal law; to consider the functioning and record of the International Criminal Court; to address the lack of Arab participation in the International Criminal Court; and to reappraise future prospects for ratification of the Rome statute by Arab states. Each of these issues was judged through the prism of Gaza and the resulting discussions centered on Western double standards and Arab impotence. As opposed to fostering demands for international or domestic accountability, the timing of the conference ensured that rhetorical defiance took the place of more sober consideration of the issues at hand.

The conference also coincided with the run-up to President Barack Obama’s inauguration, and the lack of interest in or discussion of the incoming U.S. administration, within the conference or among the general public, was striking. When I arrived back in New York on January 19th, I returned home to a very different reality. The near-constant focus on Gaza and the level of Arab sympathy with the notion of resistance should be sobering to those who imagine that a radical break in Arab perceptions of the United States will be possible without significant improvement in the lives of Palestinians. Progress in withdrawing troops from Iraq will certainly help shape the discourse, but Iraq seemed a mere afterthought when compared to the current furor over Gaza.