Luis Moreno Ocampo: “The offensive in Gaza will lead to nothing, war is incompatible with the existence of the world in the 21st century”

“It’s an ideal time to rethink the world order,” he says on the other end of the phone, from the United States. Luis Moreno Ocampoformer prosecutor of the trial against the military junta in Argentina after the dictatorship and former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Tension in the Middle East is increasing with the incessant Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets from the Palestinian enclave towards Israeli soil. The possibility of a truce seems increasingly distant. The Israeli government had already warned on the first day of the year: in 2024 the war will last “many months”.

At the same time, Russian bombing is intensifying in Ukraine and the war seems to be entering a new phase. Kiev is trying to regain strength in its counteroffensive and the fighting does not stop with just over a month to go until the end of the two years following the Russian invasion.

In the Caucasus, a tenuous truce has brought calm to the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But “the risk of armed conflict there is immense”, warns Moreno Ocampo.

In dialogue with Clarionthe international law expert, former professor at Harvard University and now at the University of Sao Paulo, outlined his point of view on the delicate global scenario, while the ICC analyzes the accusations of war crimes and genocide committed by Russia and Israel, as well as four other cases, in Asia and Africa.

“There is a war in Ukraine and in the last six months the UN Special Adviser on Genocide has warned of the risk of genocide in six different situations, including against communities that we always thought would never become a reality for them again : the Armenians, victims of the 1915 genocide, and the Jews, victims of the Holocaust,” he noted.

–South Africa just filed an indictment alleging genocide by Israel. Can we talk about genocide in the current conflict in the Middle East?

-In my opinion, Hamas committed genocide in the October 7 massacre, because the group intends to destroy the Israelis. And he believes that the only formula is to eliminate, which is why it is genocide. Furthermore, Hamas has committed war crimes, such as using civilians as shields and taking hostages, such as those it still holds.

-And were crimes committed on the Israeli side also in the offensive on Gaza?

-Israel has the right to attack Gaza where Hamas is in control. But it does not have the right to kill civilians nor does it have the right, and this is very clear, to cut off water and petrol to all the Palestinians living in Gaza, who are more than 2 million people. Israel cannot attack civilians to block Hamas. This is legally prohibited. Israel claims that in each attack it carries out delicate controls to kill only Hamas leaders. This will have to be demonstrated on a case-by-case basis.

-Israel admitted a few days ago that it mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in an attack against the extremist group in Gaza.

-The moment when three hostages, who were Israeli soldiers, surrender and take out white handkerchiefs from the vehicles carrying them, but are shot at by Israeli forces, shows that there are no strong instructions to protect lives. And that there is no strategy to free the hostages.

-What do you think might happen with South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel?

-Punishing crimes is fine, but the most important thing is to take the side of the victims. My Israeli friends feel like victims of a new Holocaust, they are desperate. My Palestinian friends feel like victims of a new Naqba, the “catastrophe”, the mass displacement that occurred in 1948. They could both be right. The fact that there is law and justice allows us to choose on the side of the victims, of justice. In Argentina in the 70s there were two sides, those who were with the military and those who were against the military. What happened with democracy in 1983 was that everyone agreed that they didn’t want any more deaths. In the Trial of the Councils we helped an entire community that did not want any more violence.

-And what is your vision of the situation in the Middle East?

-Israel could investigate Hamas as terrorists and instead opt for military action that will lead nowhere. We must understand that war is incompatible with life in the 21st century. If Israel’s war continues, it will escalate and include Hezbollah, Iran, the United States, everyone. What we need to do is make justice more efficient.

-But, despite international appeals to Israel for a truce that would allow the arrival of humanitarian aid, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems intent on moving forward…

-War is still popular in the world. When (George) Bush invaded Iraq he received 70% support. Vladimir Putin is popular in Russia. Netanyahu expresses the thoughts of many people who believe that the Palestinians should be exterminated. But it is very important to help victims by providing judicial strategies. War generates revenge, justice does not.

-Will there be justice?

-In Argentina, for example, there is a legal system. It allows us to vote, there are two houses in Congress, governments change. But globally this does not exist. There is no global system, and the International Criminal Court is very much an attempt to start putting together something global but very basic, which is mass crimes. But it does not yet have the support of all countries in the world.

–Why?

Because the bigger countries, like the United States, China, Russia, don’t want a court over them, deciding that they can’t do this or that thing. The largest countries believe that the world order will be based on their military hegemony, this causes the world to be in a permanent dynamic of combat, and this seems to me incompatible with human life. There is a game called Fortnite, where all the players have to kill each other and the one who kills everyone else wins. And it’s a good metaphor for what the world will be like if we don’t really reinforce the idea that war brings problems.

-As?

-You have to use technology. Artificial intelligence must be used for the common good. This is the fight: Fortnite or algorithms for peace.