Israel’s bombing of nuclear installations, Iranian officials and civilian buildings in Iran violates international law. At the time of writing, Israeli airstrikes have targeted hospitals, markets, water and fuel infrastructure, killing 406 Iranians, more than 90 per cent of them civilians, including families in densely populated areas and residential neighbourhoods. The strikes have also displaced over two million people across northern and central Iran, forcing them to flee urban centers in panic amid ongoing fear of renewed attacks.  

Israel claims that it launched these attacks to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But the IAEA, US intelligence agencies, and the rest of the international community have repeatedly affirmed that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. Iran has been subject to the strictest IAEA inspections regime ever. The IAEA and many states have expressed concern with Iran’s increasing level of uranium enrichment beyond what is considered required for civilian use. However, increasing its enrichment levels was a direct response to the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 and the unlawful resumption of sanctions against Iran in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Israel’s attacks now were timed to wreck the negotiations ongoing between Iran and the United States to reach a new deal.

Iran has a right to a civilian nuclear energy programme. WILPF opposes nuclear energy for all states, but the fact is that under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), all states parties have a right to the relevant technology and materials. Meanwhile, Israel is not a state party to the NPT. Israel’s nuclear arsenal and nuclear reactor have never been subject to IAEA inspections. Israel is thought to possess about 90 nuclear warheads.

Israel’s attacks on Iran are not about uranium enrichment but about “regime change” in Iran and “regional dominance” of Israel.

Double Standards

There is no international legal basis for pre-emptive attacks. Israel’s unlawful attacks are rooted in the impunity it has long experienced for its many international crimes. The double standards afforded to Israel erode trust in international institutions and justice systems, and the lack of accountability encourages more violence and undermines global legal norms. The unwavering support Israel enjoys from Western countries risks drawing an entire region, and possibly the world, into an all-out war. And Israel’s illegal aggression has drawn a military response from Iran that not only risks escalating the conflict but could also undermine nuclear non-proliferation. Furthermore, the recent announcement of potential support by the US administration, which has not been authorised by Congress and is illegal is yet another example of dangerous enabling.  

The paradox of pre-emption

Israel’s argument that its attack was a “pre-emptive strike” has an unsolvable contradiction in its logic. The fantasy that possessing nuclear weapons deters war by threatening mass destruction is supposed to then offer a “shield” to those who have the bomb. Yet here, Israel, a nuclear-armed state, has attacked a non-nuclear-armed state without provocation, feigning vulnerability.

If nuclear weapons are really instruments of “deterrence,” Israel would not be able to attack Iran to “prevent it” from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Instead, nuclear weapons only lead to massive violence. They do not deter war, nor do they bring “stability”. They are designed to enable mass murder and genocide. As we saw with the United States invading Afghanistan, Iraq, Viet Nam, Korea, and countless others, Russia attacking Ukraine and fueling conflict in Syria, Israel’s aggression against all its neighbours, and the conflict between India and Pakistan, militarism is the root cause of violence, and nuclear weapons serve as tools of insecurity, impunity and destructive power.

Wider Implications

Israel’s escalation against Iran risks drawing in other nuclear-armed states. Pakistan has already hinted at possible retaliation, and the United States has announced that it will deploy its own weapons in support of Israel’s aggression (subject to final decision), raising the dangerous possibility of the US fuelling a wider regional war. This is a continuation of US imperialism in the Middle East that will once again embroil the US in another long, deadly and costly war that will bring suffering to untold numbers of people. 

Attacking nuclear facilities, even those buried deeply underground as Iran’s are, risks radioactive contamination. Such attacks constitute a violation of the UN Charter, international law and the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Further, Iran’s response to Israeli aggression will only worsen the situation for the people of Iran that have suffered from decades of uranium enrichment that has brought only impoverishment and brutal repression of civilians and women’s rights activists. War provides an excuse for Iran to intensify internal repression, torture, and executions of those resisting patriarchal power, militarism, and oppression. WILPF stands in solidarity with the Iranian feminist activists who have long resisted both internal repression and external aggression, and have denounced the Iranian regime’s authoritarianism, militarism, and instrumentalisation of this conflict to suppress dissent and tighten domestic control.