Summary
In Falk’s usage in The Palestinian Legitimacy Struggle versus “Lawfare”, the label Israeli hardliners give to Palestinian and civil-society reliance on international law and criminal accountability — a backlash campaign that, Falk argues, acknowledges the strength of the Legitimacy struggle while seeking to discredit the law it relies on (Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, PDF p.28-31).
Details
- The setting: two contradictory developments — “the waging of an all-out legitimacy war against Israel on behalf of the Palestinian struggle for a just peace and a backlash campaign against what is called “lawfare” by Israeli hardliners” (PDF p.30).
- The Goldstone report is Falk’s illustration of the interface between the legitimacy war and lawfare: it reinforced Palestinian contentions over Operation Cast Lead and drove Israel’s leaders to fury against Richard Goldstone and his findings (PDF p.30).
- Falk’s verdict: the counterattack “is also cynically and polemically undertaken to discredit reliance on international law by those who are victimized by abusive and oppressive uses of military and police power” (PDF p.31).
Related pages
Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope, Legitimacy struggle, Universal jurisdiction, Goldstone report