Assessing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide

Margot Patterson talks to Neve Gordon, a professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London.  Gordon discusses the significance of the International Criminal Court’s decision on May 20th to seek arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismael Haniyeh) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He also examines  the International Court of Justice’s May 24th  ruling on Israel’s invasion of Rafah. He describes the criteria used to gauge war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide under international law and why some European nations support Israel despite its history of violating international law. An Israeli academic who used to teach at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and a prominent peace activist in Israel, Gordon has written about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a wide variety of publications, including The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The London Review of Books. He is the author of three books: Israel’s Occupation and, more recently, with Nicola Perugini, The Human Right to Dominate and Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire.