Clash of the Legal Titans: Fatah meets Resolution 1701

I’ve long had an interest in the law - not quite enough of an interest actually to go to law school and do something about it, mind you, but an interest just the same. Imagine my fascination and delight, then, to read the following in the Jerusalem Post:

The Lebanese government demanded [that] Palestinians in refugee camps in the Litani area... disarm in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701...

...according to “senior Fatah operative in Lebanon” Monir Al-Makdah.

Reportedly, Lebanese Prime Minister Faud Saniora made the request to Fatah representative in Lebanon Abbas Za’aki.

Al-Makdah rejected the demand in an interview with Jordanian newspaper Al-Dostur, saying that the Security Council resolution was illegal since it did not include the right of return of Palestinian refugees. [italics mine]

Now isn’t this wonderful? A legally-binding United Nations Security Council resolution can be declared “illegal” simply because it doesn’t include a reference to a presumptive “right” that is nowhere enshrined in international law - and which would be irrelevant to the implementation of Resolution 1701 even if it existed.

Rather than rail at the perfidy of Fatah, wail at the sheer unadulterated sophistry of Mister Al-Makdah’s logic, or otherwise kvetch, I’m going to take this report as a positive development in the evolution of the law: from now on, I’ll obey laws when they include stuff that makes me happy, and I’ll feel free to disobey them (without penalty, of course) if they lack that certain little something.

For example, I see no reason to obey the speed limit any more - since the traffic regulations don’t provide me with a harem of willing and lovely young women to cater to my every whim, it’s only right and reasonable for me to have other legally-sanctioned ways of coping with testosterone. And why should I be subject to the law against robbing banks when the same statute totally fails to rid my house of ever-present cat fluff? (I had thought that the proper term for cat fluff was “dander” - but I just looked it up at Dictionary.com, and it turns out that dander is actually cat dandruff, not cat fluff. And the law against bank-robbery doesn’t take care of that, either.)

Ah well (sigh)... I suppose that Israel’s legal system probably hasn’t caught up with the latest advances coming out of Lebanon. I’d better tell my getaway driver to keep to the speed limit.

(This post can also be found at the Guns and Butter Blog.)

Categories: Israel, Lebanon, Fatah, PLO, Palestine, Palestinian, Hezbollah, Middle East.