Accountability
Hoping that this time it's different...
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On Thursday morning, I tuned in to some of the proceedings in The Hague as South Africa brought charges of genocide against Israel. I wasn’t able to listen long as I was preparing my kids’ breakfast and getting ready for school and work, but even in the little bit that I had heard and the subsequent clips that I watched on social media, I felt hopeful.
Even in the brief time I was able to watch, and in the subsequent clips that I’ve seen on social media, South Africa delivered. They came with receipts and wove a clean and clear narrative that Israel has been targeting the civilians of Gaza with the hope to permanently wipe out the population of Gaza and absorb the area as part of Israel.
Western media has barely covered these proceedings, so if you haven’t been aware of what’s been happening, I urge you to look it up, read about the proceedings, and watch the videos.
Lawyers presenting South Africa’s case, which often included videos posted to social media showing the destruction of Gaza and the Israeli army gleefully raiding homes, dancing, and celebrating the death.
The evidence presented also included statements from high ranking Israeli officials including Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who said in October: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”
For nearly 100 days, I have been watching the unfolding situation in Gaza with a feeling of overwhelming helplessness. Perhaps you have shared this same feeling. I was speaking out, protesting, and trying to do what I could, but the bombings and killings continued, all supported by the U.S. government and ultimately our tax dollars.
Even after nearly all of the countries of the world called for a ceasefire in the United Nations last month (which the U.S. voted against), it has seemed that there was nothing that could be done to contain the suffering and bring it to an end. Even if this court case has little real power to enact change either, at least the facts are being presented and the world is being left to decide how to act.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the process for me was the speed of it all. South Africa announced their intent to bring charges to Israel on December 29. There has been no long discovery phase to this case, where lawyers request and swap documents and interview witnesses. There has been no back and forth about setting a trial date, venue, or judge.
As impressed as I was with the case being brought against Israel, it made me long to see others brought to justice. We just passed three years since the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. Donald Trump continues to campaign for another term as president.
I wished there had been actions like this South African court case to hold Trump to account. But when I thought about it more, I remembered that there were attempts made to bring him to justice. Several in fact. They had all just faded from my mind, barely even memories at this point.
With glass windows still shattered and with only days left in his term, Congress impeached Trump a second time for his connection to January 6. Like South Africa, they presented evidence almost immediately and argued that time was of the essence, impeaching him on January 13, 2021. Even if Trump was expected to step down from power in mere days, it was a dangerous precedent to set to not attempt to contain him.
I had completely forgotten that second impeachment trial and the speed with which it happened, probably because it was so ineffective. In the end, he fell 10 votes short of a conviction in the Senate.
After his impeachment, there were the public hearings of the January 6 Committee in the summer of 2022, which revealed new evidence of the levels of Trump’s involvement in the coup attempt. Yet he was not formally punished.
He has also been charged with numerous other crimes in courts across the country, cases whose trials are ongoing including one that was taking place last week at the same time as South Africa’s trial against Israel.
Realizing this, I wondered if we are truly able to hold the powerful to account anymore, whether that’s individuals like Trump or governments like Israel and the United States.
Still, there is a power in presenting a case in court. The work of a lawyer is similar to that of a good documentary filmmaker in that they are both storytellers. Their goals are to take hundreds of pieces of data like photographs, quotes, and video clips, and to weave them all together to tell a singular story. The best court cases and the best films have a narrative arc with a beginning, middle, end, and perhaps most importantly, a motive.
Sometimes it takes a storyteller to take the slow drip of social media and daily life and show how those drips formed a single river. One day’s posts flow into the next and a clear path emerges that can be difficult to see when we are only looking at the next image, the next plot point, the next news report.
While all of this is happening, yesterday the world again took to the streets to protest the violence in Gaza. These protests, the case at The Hague, and the continued imagery coming out of Gaza on social media all add up to public pressure against Israel and the United States.
And perhaps that’s all that really matters. There may not be a moment at the end of this trial when a judge bangs a gavel and the killing stops, but the more this case is made in public and the more people realize exactly what’s happening, the harder it becomes for the actions to continue as they are.
I want to believe in courts and I hope we are in a world where accountability still matters. Only time will tell if that’s the case or not.
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I appreciate your comments. It amazes me that their power extends to stopping peaceful protests and the removal of university president