Necessity of Establishing an International Environmental Tribunal for Criminal and Legal Support of Environment against Damages of the 22-Day War in Gaza

After captivity of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian forces and failure of subsequent negotiations as well as overt and covert efforts made to secure his release, Israel finally attacked the occupied territories, especially the Gaza Strip from land, air and sea on December 27, 2008. The attack continued for 22 days until January 18, 2009. The 22-day war had many negative consequences whose climax was violation of the environmental regulations of international law.Subsequently, chairman of the UN Human Rights Council established a committee in April 2009 to investigate various aspects of the 22-day war in Gaza and violations therein on behalf of the United Nations and gave it absolute powers to explore all dimensions of that event. The committee, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, member of the South African constitutional court and former prosecutor of international criminal court investigating war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, was joined by three other prominent legal experts, and finally presented his report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2009 in 21 chapters and about 600 pages.Information obtained from Goldstone’s report and from other creditable sources pointed to extensive destruction of the environment of Gaza during the 22-day war with the Zionist regime. The present paper just focuses on certain aspects of the 22-day Gaza war and argues that an “international environmental tribunal for criminal and legal protection of the environment against damages of the 22-day war in Gaza” should be established to protect the environment, as common heritage of humanity, and to pave the way for judicial investigation into frequent violations committed by the Zionist regime. This paper also discusses inability of the existing international judicial authorities to provide criminal and legal support for the environment. On the other hand, it explores the reason behind such extensive environmental violations.