Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law

By Francis A. Boyle, Clarity Press., Inc., 2003, 205 pp. List: $14.95; AET: $12.50.

Reviewed by Michael Gillespie

04/14/04 -- Most observers know very well that European Zionists displaced and dispossessed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and again in 1967, creating the world’s largest, most problematic, and longest running refugee crisis. Many understand as well that Israel’s continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people is aided and abetted by the U.S. government. Few, however, have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of Palestine and Israel in international law. Even among those who consider themselves knowledgeable about the Palestinian cause, questions about the legal status of Palestine and Palestinians abound. 

In a compelling new work, Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, renowned international jurist, author, and human rights champion Francis A. Boyle provides a comprehensive history of the legal wrangling over Palestine and Palestinian rights while setting out bold new legal strategies for ending Israeli violations of international legal and humanitarian standards. 

Boyle’s book arrives at a critical moment. As the extremist right-wing regime of Ariel Sharon tightens its grip, few are able to predict with any confidence the future of the heroic Palestinian struggle for liberty, justice, and national sovereignty. Boyle clarifies the confusing legal complexity of the crisis in Palestine, proposes creative new approaches to Israeli intransigence and deceit, and argues persuasively for the preservation of the established norms of international law at a time when the rule of law itself is seriously threatened.

A professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, Boyle is a seasoned participant in the Palestinian struggle—as legal adviser first to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on the Palestinian Declaration of Independence beginning in 1987, and later, from 1991 to 1993, to the Palestinian Delegation of the Middle East peace negotiations. Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law is not written exclusively for the edification of legal scholars, however. A master of the history of international mandates, protocols, conventions, and resolutions that address directly or are relevant to Palestinian aspirations and rights, Boyle decisively charts a course through the legal labyrinth with a lucid and inviting style the layperson will appreciate as much for its vitality as for its clarity.

One key to Boyle’s success is his ability to convey the intensely personal aspects of a legal drama played out on the world stage. In an introduction that explains how, as a university student in the late 1960s and 1970s, he first came to appreciate the plight of the Palestinian people despite “The Big Lie,” Boyle candidly recalls events, encounters, and challenges that have informed his perspective as an advocate for Palestine and Palestinians. Boyle’s reminiscences and trenchant observations will resonate with experienced proponents of the Palestinian cause, even as they inspire and empower a new generation of activists. 

“I have been accused of being everything but a child molester because of my support for the Palestinian people,” writes Boyle. “I have witnessed the violation of every known principle of academic integrity and freedom…in order that basic fundamental truths in relation to this longstanding conflict in the Middle East might be suppressed.”

Boyle earned his J.D. (1976, magna cum laude), master’s degree (1978) and a Ph.D. in political science (1983) at Harvard—where he served as a member of the executive committee of the Harvard Center for International Affairs and as a teaching fellow in Harvard College. He is candid in his admiration for principled educators and jurists, as well as in his criticism of institutional bias, as evidenced in his comparison of two nationally recognized Middle Eastern studies programs: “the University of Chicago has always had a first rate Center for Middle Eastern Studies that I have heartily recommended over the years to many prospective students….By comparison, Harvard’s center for Middle Eastern Studies could be viewed as effectively operating as a front organization for the CIA and probably the Mossad as well.”

Citing the fundamental precepts of international human rights law, Boyle writes, “As is true of any other state in the world today, the newly-proclaimed state of Palestine possesses the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense recognized by customary international law and article 51 of the United Nations Charter.…the Palestinian people actually living under this criminal occupation have the perfect right under international law to resist the Israeli army by the use of force, just as the French Resistance did against Nazi forces occupying France during the Second World War.”

Boyle reminds his readers that it has been decades since U.S. policy in the Middle East rested upon the foundation of sound moral and legal principles necessary to support viable and enduring international relationships in the region.“The American people cannot even begin to comprehend how to deal with the problem of international terrorism in the Middle East,” he points out, “unless they first come to grips with the fact that the Reagan/Bush Sr. administration was directly responsible for the perpetuation of one of the great international crimes in the post-World War II era against the Palestinians and Muslim people in Lebanon.…Until that time, Americans will continue to become targets of attack by these frustrated and aggrieved individuals throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean.” 

Boyle’s penetrating analyses of the Israeli and American role in the crisis that has destabilized the Middle East for over 50 years are as cogent as his criticisms are fearless and his warnings prescient. In a Dec. 1, 1992 Memorandum of Law, Boyle advised the Palestinian leadership against what he perceived as a fatally flawed interim agreement: “…because of Israeli stalling and because of American presidential election politics,” he warned, “there could be a 12-year, 16-year, or even 20-year interval between the Interim Agreement and the so-called Final Settlement no matter what the documents might say about some ‘interconnection.’ Indeed, if the Israelis have their way with their supporters in the Democratic and Republican parties and in the United States Congress, you will never see that Final Settlement. The Israelis, with American help, will simply stall, drag out, and indefinitely postpone and delay a Final Settlement while they continue to kill your people, steal your land, and drive the rest of you out of your homes.”

It was Boyle who, in a Nov. 30, 2000 speech at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, advocated the divestment campaign against Israel that now is in progress on college and university campuses across the country (see <http://www.divest-from-israel-campaign.org/). 

Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law contains the texts of several helpful and inspiring documents, including The Geneva Declaration on Terrorism (1987), The Palestinian Declaration of Independence (1988), and Boyle’s own Memorandum of Law known as the Palestinian Alternative to Oslo (1992). The book also provides relevant sections of The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973). Appendices include a comprehensive “Bibliography of Genocidal/
Apartheid Acts Inflicted by Israel on the Palestinians During the Al Aqsa Intifada,” as well as Boyle’s partial “Bibliography on the Middle East and International Law,” both of which will prove invaluable to serious students of the crises in Palestine and the Middle East. 

Readers and activists alike will benefit from the information and inspiration in Francis Boyle’s Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law—a book that scholars, researchers and other truth seekers will turn to for years to come.

Michael Gillespie, a free-lance writer based in Ames, Iowa, is a peace and justice advocate with a keen interest in interfaith dialogue.