I (Jeff Ross) traveled to Palestine last month. I was in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Nablus. I had the opportunity to speak with Palestinians about life under occupation and the war in Gaza. I would like to talk through some of my thinking about the situation in Palestine from my perspective as a Catholic and as a lawyer. I have a lot to learn, and I offer my thoughts with that acknowledgment.
The idea I keep coming back to is contained in the line, “law favors peace.” I will explain the origins of this line and introduce the idea on which I am fixed at the end of this post. I would like to begin, however, with the topic that all my Palestinian interlocutors eventually raised with me – the war in Gaza. To begin: Catholic Moral Teaching (CMT), in which I include Catholic Social Teaching, condemns the indiscriminate and disproportionate mass killing of civilians in Gaza as well as the efforts to starve them.
This condemnation is not controversial and does not make CMT exceptional. Nonetheless, it seems fitting to offer two quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in support of this condemnation. First, “Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions.” (CCC 2313). The prohibition against the starvation of civilians is codified in international humanitarian law: “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited” (Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, Article 54); “Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions” is a war crime (Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 8(2)(b)(xxv)).
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, this prohibition “has hardened into a rule of customary international law.” (Customary IHL – Rule 53. Starvation as a Method of Warfare at https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule53). This means that the prohibition is legally binding even in the absence of codification in treaty or statute. As such, the prohibition is part of the “law of nations”: “Customary law, also known as the law of nations, applies when no other authority is available to create a law.” (Library of Congress, Research Guides, Public International Law: A Beginner’s Guide, International Custom at https://guides.loc.gov/public-international-law/international-customs). It follows that Israel’s months-long blockade of food and other essentials into Gaza is to be condemned as a “crime” under CMT.
Second, “‘Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.’” (CCC 2314 (quoting Gaudium et spes 80 § 3)). Is there any factual dispute that what has happened in Gaza rises to the level of the destruction of a vast area with its inhabitants? Even if a case could be made that it is some lesser level of destruction, it certainly must be very close to that condemned in the above, and I cannot conceive an argument from within CMT that any such not-quite-as-bad level of destruction is morally acceptable. It is to be condemned under CMT.
Now to the line, “law favors peace.” I found it in the Statement of the Holy See Delegation before the General Debate of the International Criminal Court Review Conference of the Rome Statute (Kampala, 1 June 2010, 05.06.10). The International Criminal Court (ICC) has come under attack, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, the latter attacked accompanied by severely harmful sanctions. U.S. Catholics might be led into thinking that there is something irredeemably corrupt about the ICC. The Holy See Delegation does not think so. To the contrary, “the Rome Statute marked an important contribution to respect for the human person by recognizing that human rights are not limited by national borders, political position, religious background or cultural heritage but rather are inherent in every human person.” (https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2010/06/05/0371/00849.html). The same Holy See Delegation added, “The Holy See has stated consistently that peace not only is possible but that peace is a duty which must be built upon the pillars of truth, justice, love and freedom. Law favors peace and, so, the two are intricately linked.” (Emphasis in original).
The war in Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine demands immediate attention from U.S. Catholics for obvious reasons, including those with which I began this post – the human suffering is intolerable. The affront to CMT, however, runs deeper, in an analytical sense. The war in Gaza, the continued occupation of Palestine, and the complicity of the U.S. government in these injustices, is accompanied by a deliberate effort to undermine international institutions, including institutions of international law. I want to explain in future posts why I think this effort is deeply anti-Catholic. International law favors peace. Because Catholics are obligated to work for peace, they are obligated to support (and reform as necessary, not destroy) institutions of international law. This obligation holds no less for U.S. Catholics; indeed, in this moment, it holds for U.S. Catholics in a special way.