The Israeli Government has designated six leading NGOs as “terrorist organisations”, putting their crucial work in jeopardy. The speaker, Rania Madi, was representing some of those NGOs at the international level.

While adapting its own legal system to further the settler colonial process of dispossession, the Israeli regime holds international law in contempt, dismissing the Geneva Conventions, progressing with de facto annexations, killing and maiming civilians and destroying vital infrastructure with impunity. Its humanitarian obligations – for example, it is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child – are ignored where Palestinians are concerned. Within historic Palestine, discriminatory laws and ideologically-informed courts provide a thin veneer of legality to state crime. Apartheid itself is a crime under international law.

How does Israel get away with it? We are delighted that Rania shared with us her thoughts about the potential use of the law as a contribution to the liberation of Palestine.

Rania Madi is a senior legal consultant with many years’ experience representing the Palestinian case in international institutions, including the European Union and the United Nations. She is the United Nations Legal Advocacy Representative of Badil, the Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. In March 2016, Rani submitted Badil’s report on the 2014 attack on Gaza to the International Criminal Court, and defended the report.

The Cafe started with live music from Gaza.