Palestinian resistance and the fight against Israel’s crimes at the International People’s Tribunal

BARCELONA – An International People’s Tribunal (IPT) is set to be held here on November 22-23, 2025 to investigate the US-backed Zionist occupation’s war of forced starvation and ecocide in Palestine. The tribunal is dubbed as the “Right to Resist: The Palestinian People vs. The Zionist Occupation and the US Government”, which is organized by the International Peoples’ Front, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), and the People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty.

Azra Talat Sayeed, ILPS Secretary General, said that the tribunal is an expression of a strong collective resolve of the people at a time when the world’s international legal systems failed to protect the rights of the Palestinians and hold US, Israel, UK, Germany, France, and other culprits accountable.

People’s tribunal as a tool for legal and political action

During the ILPS 7^th International Assembly in Malaysia in 2024, the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) underscored the urgent need to convene an IPT for Palestine as the situation on the ground continues to rapidly deteriorate amid intensified attacks by the US-backed Israel government.

The IPT for Palestine is a quasi-judicial proceeding that aims to provide a people-led space for victims, communities, eyewitnesses, and their organizations to present and submit evidence and legal arguments concerning the offenses and crimes committed against the Palestinians. According to the IPT on Palestine, the tribunal is “both legal and political platform initiated by the people as a credible alternative, complement, or supplement to existing legal and political measures and actions undertaken to hold perpetrators accountable for violations of international laws, war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggressive intervention, genocide, violations of the right of the people to develop”.

The indictment, verdict, and decision will be delivered to the accused/defendants namely the US, Israel, and individuals and entities most complicit. It will also be submitted to international bodies such as the UN General Assembly (GA), the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), courts, governments, parliaments, international organizations, and the media.

The tribunal will preserve evidence as reference for future legal actions as well as contribute to broader movement beyond traditional advocacy work to immediately stop the genocide and the ultimate liberation of the Palestinian people. Azra pointed out that the entire process of the tribunal is a political education program that hopes to educate the children of the world to learn from the resistance against imperialism and aspirations of the Palestinian people for justice.

While IPT is largely a political, moral, and diplomatic platform, Edre Olalia, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), said that the precedents of the International People’s Tribunal led to legal actions that can also be used by the Palestinian people in exacting justice and accountability. 

Olalia shared that the case study on Agent Orange during the Vietnam War led to filing of charges against the companies that manufactured the harmful chemical. Likewise, the IPT on Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs against the Filipino people has helped bolster the ongoing case before the International Criminal Court.

Critical focus on ecocide

Ecocide is defined as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”. Farah Imad from APN argued that systemic policies by the US and Israel have targeted the deprivation of the right to a healthy environment that caused persistent and widespread environmental damages.

A major focus of the IPT is systematically and scientifically documenting on-the-ground realities, including the long-term impacts of genocidal warfare on land, water, and resources after Israel destroyed thousands of olive trees and imposed severe restrictions on Palestinian water systems.

“Agriculture is among one of the first targets of this genocide and ecocide. Over 90 percent of farmland was destroyed and inaccessible. Fishing ports leveled, water systems obliterated,” said Gabriella Neubert of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature. 

Since July 28, 2025, only 1.5 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land has been consistently accessible and undamaged. Israeli attacks have destroyed 89 percent of orchards (including 90 percent of all olive orchards), 88 percent of field crops, and 80 percent  of vegetable cultivation, along with 962 poultry farms, 924 home barns, and 689 sheep farms, the IPT on Palestine revealed.

According to Azra, the war in Palestine has damaged the basic tools and food facilities essential for their survival, and the land has been further contaminated by chemicals used in bombing. Various reports from the United Nations bodies and international humanitarian organizations revealed that children are dying due to hunger and malnutrition.

Victor Garces, ILPS Vice Chairperson for Internal Affairs, highlighted that this is not only an act of genocide. In particular, he said that this is a barbaric form of genocide in which the governments of the US and Israel have besieged the Palestinian people, creating a situation of hunger by blocking access to food and water aid.

From tribunal to liberation

Under the right to self-determination in Protocol I, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the Algiers, the Palestinian people’s inherent right to resist is both protected and guaranteed.

“This is why the IPT on Palestine is vital, not merely to expose perpetrators, but to affirm where accountability truly resides, in the hands of the people and their inalienable right to resist domination. No court built by the empire can deliver freedom to those who are designed to be contained,” Neubert expressed during the webinar. (RVO)

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