Gaza/Israel: the net of international justice is slowly closing in on Israel and… Costa Rica remains silent

Published on 26 May 2025

Gaza / Israel: the international justice net is slowly closing in on Israel and… the silence of Costa Rica

Nicolas Boeglin, Professor of Public International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Costa Rica (UCR). Contact: nboeglin(a)gmail.com

Chaque jour qui passe, les habitants perdent leurs proches, leurs maisons et l’espoir de survivre. C’est une guerre d’extermination menée par étapes, sous le couvert du silence international et en l’absence totale de toute reddition de comptes. À chaque appel à l’aide, ce qui reste de foi des Gazaouis en un possible salut du monde s’effrite davantage face à cet enfer sans fin.

Testimony of a Gaza resident, May 18, 2025. Excerpt from “Testimony of Abu Amir, May 18, 2025: escalation of massacres: Operation Gideon’s Chariots.” Full text available here.

 À Gaza, il n’y a pas un jour sans massacre, ni une nuit sans tragédie. Et si le monde ne se mobilise pas maintenant, ce qui reste de ce peuple sera enseveli sous les cendres, bien avant que ne soit annoncée la trêve ou divulgué le contenu de l’accord. Gaza ne réclame aujourd’hui que son droit à la vie. Y a-t-il quelqu’un pour l’écouter ? Quelqu’un pour empêcher le prochain massacre… avant qu’il ne devienne une simple brève dans un journal télévisé éphémère ?

Testimony of a Gaza resident, May 7, 2025. Excerpt from “Testimony of Abu Amir, May 7, 2025: Gaza burns before the agreement.” Full text available here.

Ce qui se passe aujourd’hui à Gaza dépasse toute description : c’est un enfer absolu, un cataclysme qui écrase pierres et êtres humains, mettant en péril jusqu’à l’essence même de l’humanité. Ce n’est plus seulement une agression militaire ou un blocus impitoyable, c’est une épreuve monstrueuse pour la dignité humaine, un rappel criant que le silence mondial est une complicité dans le crime.

Testimony of a Gaza resident, April 28, 2025. Excerpt from “Testimony of Abu Amir, April 28, 2025: What is happening today in Gaza is indescribable.” Full text available here.

Tout ce qui se passe ne semble pas relever du hasard, mais d’un plan systématique clairement visible, dans une tentative manifeste de pousser les habitants à l’exil, à accepter ce qu’on appelle les projets de « migration volontaire », c’est-à-dire un déplacement forcé déguisé. Les politiques de famine, de destruction et de bombardements constants ne sont que les outils d’un plan plus vaste visant à vider Gaza de ses habitants ou à briser leur volonté. Ce qui se joue à Gaza n’est pas seulement un siège ou une agression, mais un processus d’extinction méthodique de la vie et de la présence palestinienne. 

Testimony of a Gaza resident, April 12, 2025. Excerpt from “Testimony of Abu Amir, April 12, 2025: Gaza under fire: bombings and relentless hunger.” Full text available here.

By way of introduction

Since April 2024, the United Nations has issued serious warnings about the destructive and vengeful attitude of Israel’s top military and political leaders in Gaza: see the official statement from the United Nations.

A few weeks earlier, Israel’s “scholasticide” in Gaza had been denounced from the United Nations headquarters in Europe in an official statement stating that:

These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society

A warning issued this time before the United Nations Security Council itself, less than 10 days after October 7, 2023, by the representative of Palestine, deserves special mention (in this quote, the English version accompanies the Spanish version):

“What is happening in Gaza is not a military operation, it is a large-scale aggression against our people. These are massacres against innocent civilians. Nothing in natural law or international law allows for the targeting of civilians and such indiscriminate, barbaric attacks against them. Nothing in natural law or international law allows for the targeting of civilians and such indiscriminate, barbaric attacks against them“ (Statement by the representative of Palestine to the United Nations Security Council, at its meeting on October 16, 2023 (see minutes S/PV/9439, on page 9 / Statement by the representative of Palestine to the United Nations Security Council, at its meeting on October 16, 2023 (see verbatim S/PV/9439, at page 9).

Despite this very early warning, and many others that followed from countless organizations, states, and United Nations experts, all of which were ignored, it is interesting to note how, little by little, international mechanisms to hold Israel accountable to international justice for its numerous abuses against the civilian population in Gaza have been activated.

It should be noted that these countless acts of violence, carried out on orders from young Israeli soldiers, leave a deep mark on their minds, as detailed in this in the Times of Israel on May 19, 2025, with more than thirty suicides among the ranks of Israel recorded since October 7, 2023. This other report by CNN from October 2024 is also worth mentioning and highly recommended reading (see link). It is titled: “He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide.”

Warnings ignored about Israel’s true intentions in Gaza are also listed in this very comprehensive interview (see video) conducted in Spanish with the former High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU) on May 22. This interview is highly recommended, given the wide range of pressure exerted on this senior EU official, who left office four months ago.

Despite these pressures, little by little, thanks to diplomatic efforts by Slovenia, Spain, Ireland, and Norway, some European states are realizing that they can no longer stand idly by while Israel subjects the Gaza Strip to total destruction. Issues such as

• the suspension of trade agreements with Israel;
• the total boycott on arms exports to Israel;
• EU sanctions against organizations and individuals in Israel that promote the illegal colonization of occupied Palestinian territory; and
• the activation of international criminal justice so that, one day, Israeli leaders and military commanders will be held accountable before it

are the order of the day in several European capitals in the second half of May 2025.

This recent report by the BBC (highly recommended due to the quality of the footage and videos) on the bombing of the European hospital in Gaza by Israel on May 14th refutes all of Israel’s claims that the Israeli military is carrying out bombings in compliance with its obligations under international humanitarian law. Incidentally, it highlights the completely false nature of the statement made by the US representative to the United Nations Security Council on May 13. The text (see text) confirms that what Israel claims is repeated by the United States before the Security Council: both states agree on absolutely all aspects related to Gaza.

From late April to early May 2025: little information available on Gaza

On May 21, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) again rejected an appeal filed by Israel to invalidate two arrest warrants against two of its leaders (see decision of the Prosecutor).

Going back a few weeks, despite a varied and diverse international news agenda in the last days of April 2025 and the first weeks of May (mainly focused on covering the level of incidents and improvisation of the new occupant of the White House since January 20, 2025), it was also possible to note, at the end of April, how international justice has been gradually tightening its noose around Israel. This is an issue that, unlike other topics on the global agenda, has been very poorly reported in the major international and national media, which may raise some very valid questions.

In the case of Costa Rica, for example, the lack of references to these important decisions in the national press, as well as the very little coverage given to the unspeakable drama being experienced by the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, should prompt reflection on certain tendencies in the media. The absence of any reference to the 76th anniversary of the Nakba by many organizations around the world on May 15 is another notable omission in the Costa Rican media. For those in Costa Rica who are interested in learning about the meaning of the word “Nakba” (which means “catastrophe” in Arabic), we recommend visiting this exhibition held at the United Nations headquarters in New York for the 75th anniversary in 2024 (see link) and this link in Spanish from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (better known by its acronym UNRWA). For those who love culture and history and would like to go back even further in time in Gaza, an exhibition in Paris at the Institut du Monde Arabe, entitled “Trésors sauvés de Gaza: 5000 ans d’histoire” (see link) offers a small sample of the archaeological remains found in Gaza.

Returning briefly to Costa Rica, the title of this report on Costa Rican television in March 2024 raises other questions about the flow of young Israelis who, from the idyllic beaches of Costa Rica, fly to Israel and from there go on to fight in Gaza in a matter of days.

After committing all kinds of abuses, will these young people return as if nothing had happened to enjoy the wonderful beaches that Costa Rica has to offer? Recently, the Peruvian justice system was activated in search of an Israeli soldier who is in Peruvian territory (see note from the Hind Rajab Foundation dated May 23). In January 2025, an Israeli soldier accused of committing crimes in Gaza managed to escape in extremis from Brazilian justice, thanks to “efforts” by Israel that have not been detailed to date (see nota de prensa).

The report on the situation in Gaza prepared by the United Nations on May 21, 2025 (see report) details the tragedy of unprecedented proportions and the uninterrupted sequence of war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers in the first three weeks of May. The previous report, dated May 14, 2025 (see link), shows the ongoing destruction by Israel in Gaza. Forty-eight hours after its publication, Chile, like several other states, issued a new strong condemnation after a hundred deaths were recorded in just one day (see official statement of May 16). There was no official reaction from the Costa Rican diplomatic apparatus.

In three days, 250 people lost their lives, as documented in this article published in Israel on May 16. On May 12, the United Nations warned in this report that “the situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely dangerous and could lead to a major humanitarian crisis.”org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Malnutrition_Apr_Sept2025_Special_Snapshot.pdf”>report of an imminent risk of widespread famine in Gaza, assessing the impact of malnutrition on the youngest inhabitants of Gaza.

Since March 2, 2025, thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, water, and food have been waiting at the border, blocked by Israel’s refusal to allow them to enter Gaza. On May 14, this article published in Israel and titled “Render it unusable: Israel’s mission of total urban destruction,“ based on accounts from Israeli soldiers and officers, details the type of instructions they received to proceed with the methodical destruction of all types of infrastructure in Gaza. On May 15, the NGO Human Rights Watch published a report entitled: ”Gaza: latest Israeli plan inches closer to extermination.”

Finally, on May 19, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom collectively condemned Israel’s recent announcements regarding the expansion of its military operations in Gaza (see joint statement), without referring—a glaring omission—to the abuses committed by Israel prior to these announcements. In the statement posted by the French authorities (see text) states that:

Nous ne resterons pas les bras croisés pendant que le gouvernement Netanyahou poursuit ces actions scandaleuses. Si Israël ne met pas fin à la nouvelle offensive militaire et ne lève pas ses restrictions sur l’aide humanitaire, nous prendrons d’autres mesures concrètes en réponse. 

As a corollary to all of the above, the “siege against children” in Palestine by Israel was denounced on May 20 by the United Nations (see https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/assault-children-un-experts-condemn-renewed-attacks-unrwa-schools-gaza-and”).org/en/press-releases/2025/05/assault-children-un-experts-condemn-renewed-attacks-unrwa-schools-gaza-and”>official statement). On May 21, Brazil demanded that Israel cease its offensive in Gaza and lift the blockade on humanitarian aid in particularly harsh terms:

Submetida há mais de dois meses a bloqueio completo, a Faixa enfrenta, ademais, risco iminente de fome generalizada. O Brasil expressa grave preocupação com a anunciada intenção israelense de permitir ingresso mínimo de alimentos e remédios em Gaza, recordando que o uso da fome como método constitui crime de guerra

véase texto integral del comunicado oficial colgado por las autoridades diplomáticas brasileñas).

On May 23, the rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued harsh criticism of Israel (see official statement). In a press release on the same day, the Secretary-General of the United Nations stated that:

Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction. Today, 80 per cent of Gaza has been either designated an Israeli-militarized zone or an area where people have been ordered to leave. In other words, four-fifths of the territory of Gaza is a no-go zone for the people of Gaza. And so, beyond questions about the particular number of trucks at any particular moment, it is important to stay fixed on the big picture. And the big picture is that without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound.

Of all this constant flow of information produced so far in the month of May 2025 about the absolute humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, is there no trace of it in the main national and international media outlets read by our esteemed readers? How can this omission be explained, given that most of these texts are posted in press releases by the entity that produces them, which then circulates them to its contact lists and social media?

For Palestinians (as well as for people who closely follow what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territory), it has long been customary for an information blackout to limit the flow of information around the world when it comes to criticism of Israel’s senseless actions in Palestine.

On May 21, another official statement from the United Nations, also ignored by the main national and international media, on the situation of women and girls in Gaza, states emphatically that:

They noted that over 28,000 women and girls have been killed, thousands have been injured and nearly 1 million displaced. Close to 13,000 women are now single heads of households. The entire population is still confronted with a critical risk of famine. Nearly 71,000 children and 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition in the immediate future.

On May 22, 2025, a complaint was made public by employees of a company that dominates the global computer and information technology industry regarding the uncertain fate of emails containing the words “Gaza,” “Palestine,” or “genocide.” (see press article).

Israel’s military failure in 19 months of a senseless military operation

On May 7, it was 19 months since October 7, 2023: with an Israeli military strategy (intense bombing of Gaza that began in the afternoon/evening of October 7, 2023, under the pretext of “eradicating Hamas and recovering Israeli hostages”) that constitutes a true failure from a strategic point of view:

• The only Israeli hostages released since October 7, 2023, were freed as a result of a previously negotiated exchange agreed upon with Hamas, while at the same time:
• Despite substantial losses, Hamas appears to be capable of generating new fighters and new leadership within its ranks, and manages to maintain all the logistics involved in keeping Israeli hostages hidden somewhere in Gaza and feeding them. This is a point that was acknowledged by the outgoing US Secretary of State himself during his last week in office in mid-January 2025 (Note 1).

The physical condition of an Israeli-American hostage released on May 12 following direct negotiations between the United States and Hamas (see press release press release) after 584 days in captivity, confirm the aforementioned logistics… and the aforementioned failure.

Note that experts warned very early on about the completely unrealistic nature of Israel’s military objective of “eradicating Hamas” in Gaza: see, for example, this publication made in Barcelona in the month of March:org/publicaciones/las-tres-consecuencias-inevitables-del-conflicto-entre-israel-y-gaza”>publication made in Barcelona in November 2023.

While part of Israeli society is well aware that Israel’s military offensive in Gaza is a political survival strategy for its current prime minister (who will remain in power in Israel as long as he leads a cabinet at war), it is striking that analysts and commentators outside Israel continue to repeat that the official justifications given by Israel are all valid.

Faced with the resounding failure of its strategy, and given the impunity that seems to be guaranteed to its highest authorities by states that continue to supply weapons and ammunition to the Israeli army, Israel announced on May 5 a intensification of its military offensive in Gaza, provoking widespread condemnation from the international community: this new plan provides for the occupation of two-thirds of Gaza by Israel and the concentration of the entire civilian population of Gaza in a small perimeter.

On May 6, 2025, the international community as a whole condemned Israel’s military expansion plan in Gaza, adopted 24 hours earlier by its highest authorities.

In Latin America, we can cite Chile’s strong position, which should inspire many other states (see full text). Similarly, we can cite the statement issued by Bolivia on May 7. In Europe, Spain strongly condemned this military expansion plan, together with Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Norway (see text of the joint statement posted on the official website of Spanish diplomacy). On May 16, South Africa condemned for the umpteenth time the massacre of more than 140 civilians in a single day in Gaza by Israel (see press release), concluding its statement by noting that:

The credibility of the international order depends on the consistent application of international law and accountability for all violations, regardless of the perpetrator.

On May 19, 23 states vehemently condemned Israel for maintaining its blockade of humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Gaza, which is facing critical famine (see statement posted by the Canadian diplomatic service).

The reaction of the Costa Rican diplomatic service

This section will be quite modest in length compared to the others: in fact, despite the aforementioned statements and reports on the unspeakable tragedy unfolding in Gaza and the numerous official communiqués issued by renowned NGOs, states, experts, and the United Nations Secretary-General himself, the Costa Rican diplomatic authorities have remained completely silent throughout the month of May (at least at the time of writing—May 25).

On May 20, in an official ceremony, Israel presented the Children’s Hospital of Costa Rica with multipurpose equipment for medical supplies (see note from the Costa Rican Social Security Fund). With regard to children in Gaza, this report refers to the deaths of 15,613 Palestinian children since Israel began its attacks on Gaza on the afternoon/evening of October 7, 2023.

Gaza, information, and Hasbara

Beyond the limited information that the Children’s Hospital of Costa Rica appears to have about the situation to which Israel is subjecting Palestinian children in Gaza, the fact is that this figure released by UNICEF reveals the senselessness of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

From an information management perspective, it would not be the first time (nor the last…) that information circulating about what is happening in Gaza and Israel is simply omitted or presented in a highly questionable manner by some newsrooms.

The Palestinians, as well as the many supporters of the Palestinian cause in Costa Rica and around the world, have been well aware of this since long before October 7, 2023.

However, since then, the treatment of information about Israel and Gaza has undergone a notable shift, with what could be described as a veritable information blockade imposed by many media outlets and widespread disinformation aimed at manipulating public opinion. In this regard, we refer our esteemed readers to a recent book published by one of France’s most renowned experts on international affairs, aptly titled:

“Permis de tuer. Gaza: génocide, négationnisme et Hasbara” (véase enlace).

The word Hasbara refers to a network of Israeli diplomatic efforts to guide public opinion and discredit criticism of Israel, with the aim of ensuring that Israel’s actions are always perceived positively abroad (Note 2).

Precisely, a publication available online entitled “Israel’s Hasbara Toolkit” (75 pages, published in the United Kingdom) details the range of expressions and semantic games to be applied in a wide variety of areas: specialists in international law will easily recognize the extremely persistent semantic game that has been applied to their discipline in countless articles and columns published in Costa Rica, as well as in many other parts of the world, since October 7, 2023 (pp. 56-58). In this conference by the founder of Medecins sans Frontieres held on May 16, 2025, in France (highly recommended), the mechanisms used in the French and international press to cover up the abuses of all kinds committed by the Israeli army are explained in detail.

Note that these same semantic games were clearly identified more than 10 years ago, with the aim of whitewashing the abuses committed by the Israeli army in Gaza during its ground offensive: see the list of expressions and terms in this article published in 2014 by Open Democracy. Following Israel’s offensive in Gaza in July/August 2014 (70 dead on the Israeli side, including 67 soldiers killed during the ground offensive), 2,251 people were reported dead on the Palestinian side, including 551 children (see link to access the report prepared by the United Nations and its summary). Observers will recall how in 2014 the entire Israeli diplomatic apparatus and its circles of influence discredited the figures for deaths and injuries in Gaza provided by Hamas, figures that … were corroborated and confirmed by a United Nations commission of inquiry, author of the aforementioned reports, a few months later. The same subsequent confirmation by a commission of inquiry of the figures initially released by Hamas regarding Palestinian fatalities was observed during Israel’s deadly bombing campaign on Gaza in 2009 (Note 3).

Regarding the resources allocated to Hasbara, this article in the Israeli media outlet TimesofIsrael on December 29, 2024, we read that:

Under the new budget, the Foreign Ministry will receive $150 million, on top of what it gets for its existing activities, for what’s officially known as public diplomacy, or hasbara in Hebrew. That sum is more than 20 times what such efforts have typically been allotted in past years.

Now, the generous budget allocated to Hasbara for 2025 and Israel’s fairly effective communication strategy that we can observe are one thing. But quite another is the siege of international justice, as aptly titled in the title of this conference held on May 6 at the University of Costa Rica / UCR): “Gaza – Israel: from the information siege to the siege of international justice” (see flyer for the event and the video available on YouTube since a few days ago).

This veritable information blackout may, as a recent example, explain why this important press release by several United Nations human rights rapporteurs and experts on May 7, 2025 (see text) was not widely reported in the mainstream Costa Rican media (or in the major international news agencies), despite its particularly striking title: “End unfolding genocide or watch it end life in Gaza: UN experts say States face defining choice.”

A similar outcome can be seen in another press release from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights herself (see text). Like this other statement issued this time by the members of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CERD Committee), one of the 11 treaty bodies within the United Nations human rights system, dated May 8, 2025, on Gaza.

A particularly busy end to April for Israel

According to the , in its May 3 edition), we analyzed the scope of two decisions by the Appeals Chamber of the ICC in The Hague on April 24, 2025:

• In the first of these, the five judges of this Chamber refused to suspend the arrest warrants against Israeli leaders (its current Prime Minister and its now former Minister of Defense), while at the same time:
• The judges also upheld both arrest warrants and accepted part of Israel’s appeal against this same decision by the Pre-Trial Chamber.

These are the responses of the Appeals Chamber to a voluminous arsenal of supposedly legal arguments presented by Israel to the ICC judges in an attempt to somehow avoid both arrest warrants. However voluminous and creative, the aforementioned arsenal had little effect: in fact, both arrest warrants remain legally valid, as this article (one of the few published on this subject) published on the specialized legal website Opinio Juris (Note 4) rightly concludes.

On May 5, the ICC Prosecutor took note of the indications given by the Appeals Chamber in a decision (see text) of the ICC Preliminary Chamber of May 14, which rejected Israel’s arguments that were deemed admissible by the Appeals Chamber. Similarly, the aforementioned rejection by the ICC Prosecutor of Israel’s new appeals dated May 21 (see text).

Another international court also located in The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), held public hearings in The Hague between April 28 and May 2, this time in the context of advisory proceedings on Israel’s obligations in Gaza arising from its status as a Member State of the United Nations.

A previous similar proceeding concluded on July 19, 2024, with a historic decision by the ICJ on the total illegality of the colonization and occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory (see text at French and English): It should be recalled that Costa Rica voted against this request to the international judge when it was put to the vote in the General Assembly in December 2022, without giving any explanation; and that, when a resolution of the same Assembly accepting the content of the advisory opinion was voted on in September 2024, Costa Rica abstained (again without giving any explanation in New York to the other delegates).

The justification for Costa Rica’s strange vote appeared later in an official statement posted by the Costa Rican diplomatic apparatus, invoking reasons of a… commercial nature. How so? Well, as it says: see our note published in the section “Some brief comments on the ‘justification’ officially provided by Costa Rican diplomats” (Note 5). In order not to cause further embarrassment to our esteemed readers, we will refrain from reproducing these comments here.

Returning to the ICJ advisory proceedings currently underway on Israel’s obligations as a member state of the United Nations and its senseless actions in Gaza, this is a proceeding that originated in a proposal by Norway in October 2024.

There’s no way to overstate how crazy it is that, starting in the evening of October 7, 2023, a country has intentionally destroyed an entire civilian population and their means of survival (water, crops, buildings, power grid, education system, hospital network, cultural heritage), as well as bombed United Nations equipment, infrastructure, and vehicles deployed in different parts of a territory, and deliberately attack schools and offices where United Nations officials work. The death toll of United Nations officials killed in these repeated attacks carried out by Israel in Gaza stands at 284 fatalities (see press release of March 20, 2025).

It can therefore be highlighted that in the last days of April and early May 2025, The Hague was the scene of an exercise in which the United Nations, some 40 States and three other international organizations had the opportunity to demonstrate to the judges of the ICJ the importance of the legal rules that bind all Member States of the United Nations and to detail before the highest judicial authority the list of legal obligations that Israel has violated: on behalf of Latin America, the following participated in order of appearance before the judges of the ICJ (see program): Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Panama. It is interesting to note that, on behalf of the Arab region, in addition to Palestine, six States also participated, namely (in order of appearance before the ICJ): Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, and Tunisia.

This consultative procedure also allowed States and international organizations to remind the ICJ judges of Israel’s repeated and manifest disregard for the various orders issued by the ICJ itself in the context of the case brought by South Africa against Israel for genocide in Gaza on December 29, 2023 (see text of that case, accompanied by an urgent request for provisional measures). These orders by the international judge in The Hague were intended to stop Israel in its senseless destruction of Gaza and were issued between January and May 2024: there are four orders in total, including the one issued in May 2024, which we had the opportunity to analyze (Note 6).

Israel’s absence in The Hague: a simple formality?

The long list of States and international organizations (40 States and three international organizations in addition to the United Nations) invited to address the 15 members of the ICJ appears on the first eight pages of the verbatim transcript of the first day of hearings (see link to hearings at tomorrow and afternoon) does not include Israel.

While some commentators consider this to be a minor detail, Israel’s omission confirms the limits of the information blockade that can be observed in relation to the treatment of information about what has been happening in Gaza since the afternoon/evening of October 7, 2023: Israel’s narrative (and that of its allies), which tends to legally justify Israel’s actions in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory based on legal considerations and “arguments” put forward by its diplomatic apparatus, does not stand up to scrutiny before international judges. We had already had the opportunity to point out a very similar omission in the previous ICJ advisory proceeding that concluded on July 19, 2024, with a total of five modest pages submitted by Israel for its defense before the ICJ judges on the alleged legality of the colonization and occupation of Palestinian territory (Note 7).

In order to illustrate to our esteemed readers the gulf that exists between, on the one hand, the official discourse of Israel (and its circles of influence and numerous spokespeople) and, on the other hand, the reality of public international law, it is worth mentioning what the ICJ stated in July 2004: On that occasion, the ICJ clearly indicated to Israel (and its allies) that the argument of self-defense does not apply when responding to attacks originating from a territory occupied by Israel.

The official text of the ICJ advisory opinion on the wall built in Palestinian territory (available at

The ICJ’s decision in July 2004 was taken by 14 votes to one, with the US judge feeling compelled to dissenting from the opinion of his 14 colleagues: see paragraph 163 of the final operative part of the advisory opinion.

Since this argument has been rejected by international courts for more than 20 years, we leave it as a small task for each of our esteemed readers in Costa Rica to review for themselves how many analysts, columnists, and “experts” have invoked the right to self-defense to justify Israel’s response to the attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The same exercise can be recommended, of course, outside Costa Rica, including in the columns of the major European, US, and Canadian media outlets. On the occasion of an article published in May 2024 by article published in May 2024 by a colleague on the prestigious European legal website EJIL-Talk, we took the liberty of asking you the following question in the comments section (without receiving any response from you):

In these conditions, why what has been considered as a legal argument that “has no relevance” by ICJ in 2004 could now (2024) be considered as “having relevance”?

The United States and Israel: a rock-solid alliance now targeting… a United Nations rapporteur

The US diplomatic apparatus has been waging a fierce campaign against United Nations bodies that criticize Israel. At the same time, a very detailed report was released by Human Rights Watch on the draconian policy of arresting and detaining activists on campus.org/news/2025/04/03/us-end-campaign-draconian-campus-arrests”> report by Human Rights Watch on the draconian policy of repression against professors and academics critical of Israel on US university campuses, observed since January 20, 2025.

Recently, US immigration authorities have even announced that their officials will review “anti-Semitic” content on social media before granting visas to enter the United States (see official note from the USCIS on April 11, 2025). The official statement of April 15, 2025, from the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations questioning the Special Rapporteur on the rights of the Palestinian people, Francesca Albanese (see text) highlights the exact coincidence of criteria between the United States and Israel (an official statement which, incidentally, did not greatly impress Francesca Albanese, as evidenced by this recent interview with Al Jazeera on May 4).

It is worth noting that the recent request to remove Francesca Albanese was made by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee (see link). The mere fact that the United States and Israel, as well as their allies and numerous circles of influence, deployed the full battery of diplomatic and media pressure against this Italian jurist highlights her work and the quality of her reports on the situation in Gaza, in particular two of them presented in 2024 at the United Nations, which we would like to reference. We highly recommend reading and sharing these reports in order to understand the destructive logic of the Israeli military command in Gaza:

• March 2024: Anatomy of a genocide, report A/HRC/55/73 available online, full text available at here.
• October 2024: «Genocide as a colonial erasure», report A/79/384, full text available here.

On April 10, in another interview with a French digital media outlet (see link), Francesca Albanese explained the scope of her work and the deep discomfort it has caused in some circles in the United States and Israel (and among their allies in Europe).

It is worth remembering that the current US president blindly trusts the information provided to him by Israel: during his first term, on May 8, 2018, he opted to withdraw the United States from the so-called “nuclear deal” sealed in July 2015 between Iran and the international community, after almost 20 years of intense negotiations.

The unilateral decision by the United States was based on “intelligence reports” from Israel on the Iranian program, released at the end of April 2018 (see New York Times article). The conclusions reached by the United States were formally refuted by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which maintained that Iran was fully complying with everything agreed in 2015 with the international community, as we had the opportunity to point out in a text entitled precisely: “Misinformed informants? IAEA refutes the United States: Iran is complying with its nuclear obligations” (Note 8).

On May 5, the US Congress began debating a controversial bill that seeks to severely punish anyone in the United States who promotes a boycott against Israel (see press release).

Israel’s usual ranting and gesticulation

First, it should be noted that Israel’s top officials labeled the ICC judges “anti-Semitic” in November 2024 (see note press release), and called on the UN Secretary-General to resign from his post in October 2023, pointing to the context surrounding the October 7 attack (see note from The Guardian).

This is an angry reaction from Israel’s highest authorities whenever their diplomacy fails, and it no longer makes much of an impression, except in certain small political circles that gravitate around the White House in the United States and other circles active in some capitals: we refer again here to the aforementioned online publication entitled “Israel’s Hasbara Toolkit” (75 pages, published in the United Kingdom), which details the type of expressions and semantic games to be used to discredit and discredit criticism of Israel (for specialists in international law, we particularly recommend reading pp. 56-58).

Beyond the ease with which the terms “anti-Semitic” or “anti-Semitism” are used in Israeli government circles and among their allies, it is highly likely that Israel will be the subject of particularly adverse decisions by international courts, whether the ICC or the ICJ: Indeed, Israel’s defiant attitude toward international justice in The Hague and the repeated vociferous statements and gestures of its top leaders against both jurisdictions can only contribute to the judges of both jurisdictions opting to take particularly exemplary decisions in the future. In particular, given the absolute disregard for the rules of international law by the highest Israeli authorities since the afternoon/evening of October 7, 2023, against the Palestinian civilian population.

Returning to international criminal justice and the effects of the arrest warrants issued by the ICC, for the official ceremonies in Rome on the occasion of the funeral of His Holiness Pope Francis on April 26, the Prime Minister of Israel chose not to travel to the city where the ICC (the international criminal court established by the Rome Statute, adopted in July 1998) was created.

In conclusion

Without a doubt, as time goes by, the net of international justice has been gradually closing in on Israel in a way rarely seen against a state and its leaders: in some ways, despite all its efforts in terms of communication, Israel is becoming a true pariah state within the international community. This situation is very similar to that experienced by South Africa while it maintained its apartheid regime.

Even stranger, then, it may seem that in early April 2025, as if nothing were being discussed or processed against Israel in the two highest international courts in The Hague, Costa Rica reported the imminent conclusion of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel (see official statement from Costa Rica in October 2024, whose title refers to the fact that Costa Rica and Israel are “on track.” As if, for the current leaders of Costa Rica, as well as for a large part of the Costa Rican productive sector … nothing particularly serious is happening in Gaza.

While Latin American countries and various other parts of the world, as well as United Nations bodies, have denounced the utter senselessness of Israel’s actions in Gaza this May 2025, the profound silence of Costa Rica’s highest diplomatic authorities is striking.

Notes

Note 1: On January 15, 2025, in this statement by the then head of US diplomacy, the failure of Israel’s strategy in Gaza from a strictly military perspective was made clear: see

Our esteemed readers will be able to see for themselves the poor coverage in the major international media of this statement by the outgoing Secretary of State, made public in his final days as head of US diplomacy: had it been made public much earlier, it might have prompted the United States to review its position, given that since the beginning of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, several voices had warned that Hamas would be strengthened by each indiscriminate and disproportionate attack by Israel against the Palestinian civilian population.

Note 2: On Hasbara, see this article published in France in the newspaper Libération on this subject, as well as this analysis written in English. For more academic articles, we refer you to this very detailed one published in 2016: AOURAGH M., “Hasbara 2.0 Israel’s Public Diplomacy in the Digital Era,” University of Westminster, 2016, 28 pages. Full text available here; as well as, more recently (2020) JEDRZEJEWESKA. K., “Hasbara: public diplomacy with Israeli characteristics,” Torun International Studies, Vol. 13, 2020, No. 1, pp. 105-118. Full text available here.

Note 3: In 2009, the military offensive carried out in Gaza between December 28, 2008, and January 17, 2009, by Israel (see link), resulted in the deaths of 13 Israelis and approximately 1,400 Palestinians (see section ”casualties” in paragraphs 352-364 of this United Nations report). One of the few forums in Costa Rica to analyze this deadly Israeli air strike in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 was held at the UCR: see link.

Note 4: See the conclusions reached in: HELLER K.J., “The Appeals Chamber decides Israel’s appeals – and refuses to suspend the arrest warrants,” Opinio Juris, April 25, 2025 edition. Full text available here.

Note 5: See BOEGLIN N., “Gaza/Israel: Regarding Bolivia’s recent request for intervention before the ICJ,” October 9, 2024 edition. Text available here.

Note 6: See BOEGLIN N., “Gaza/Israel: International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders Israel to immediately suspend its offensive in Rafah and open Gaza to investigation by United Nations agencies,” May 24, 2024. Text available here.

Note 7: At that time, we pointed out that in July 2024, when the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the colonization and illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory was released, that:

“In this regard, the 292 pages of Palestine’s brief (see text at French and in English) contrast with the modest five pages submitted at the time by Israel (see text at French and English).

With regard to Israel, it should be noted that, despite being able to do so, Israel chose not to participate in the oral hearings, a detail that the US judge at the ICJ considered necessary to point out in her separate statement (see text), specifying that:

4. It also is unfortunate that Israel did not meaningfully participate in these advisory proceedings. Israel submitted a five-page written statement to the Court, together with annexes. It chose not to participate in the oral proceedings, despite the fact that up to the opening of those proceedings, the Court had reserved three hours for Israel to present its views — the same amount of time allocated to the observer State of Palestine, and six times the amount allocated to any other participant. This is an advisory proceeding, and no State was under an obligation to participate, including Israel. Israel’s participation in the oral proceedings, however, would have benefited the Court. Conversely, the failure of a State to participate cannot prevent the Court from fulfilling its responsibilities in replying to an advisory request.

Véase BOEGLIN N., “Ocupación prolongada y colonización ilegal israelí del territorio palestino: apuntes con relación a la reciente opinión consultiva de la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ)“, 19 de julio del 2024. Texto disponible aquí. 

Note 8: See BOEGLIN N., “Misinformed informants? IAEA refutes United States: Iran does comply with agreed nuclear obligations,“ Legal website of Derechoaldia.com, May 13, 2018 edition, full text available at here.

Additional material (audio): link to the audio of the radio broadcast “Legal Consultation,” a program of the Faculty of Law of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), broadcast on May 22, 2025, entitled “Gaza / Israel: from the information blockade to the blockade of international justice.”