Vijay Prashad: The No-Rules International Order

June 7, 2024

Israel’s massacre on the tent camp in Rafah is just the latest. For decades now, Tel Aviv  – like Washington  – has defied any attempt to apply international humanitarian law to its actions.

Ana Segovia, Mexico, “Huapango Torero” or “Huapango Bullfighter,” 2019. (Via Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

By Vijay Prashad
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. It covers our entire surface, at some points only as thin as a piece of paper and at other points about half as thick as a credit card.

The skin, which protects us from all manner of germs and other harmful elements, is fragile and unable to defend humans from the dangerous weapons we have made over time. The ancient blunt axe will break the skin with a heavy blow, while a 2,000-pound MK-84 “dumb bomb” made by General Dynamics will not only obliterate the skin, but the entire human body.

Despite a May 24 order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Israeli military continues to bomb the southern part of Gaza, particularly the city of Rafah. In blatant disregard of the ICJ’s order, on May 27 Israel struck a tent city in Rafah and murdered 45 civilians. 

U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 9 that an Israeli attack on Rafah would be his “red line,” but – even after the tent massacre – the Biden administration has insisted that no such line has been violated.

At a press conference on May 28, communications adviser to the U.S. National Security Agency, John Kirby, was asked how the U.S. would respond if a strike by the U.S. armed forces killed 45 civilians and injured 200 others. 

Kirby responded:

“We have conducted airstrikes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where tragically we caused civilian casualties. We did the same thing.”

To defend Israel’s latest massacre, Washington has chosen to make a startling admission. Given that the ICJ has ruled that it is “plausible” that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, could it be said that the U.S. is guilty of the same in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Ficre Ghebreyesus, Eritrea, “Map/Quilt,” 1999. (Via Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

In 2006, the International Criminal Court (ICC) began to assess the possibility of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then, in 2014 and 2017, respectively, opened formal investigations into crimes committed in both countries.

Neither Israel nor the United States are signatories to the 2002 Rome Statute, which established the ICC. Rather than sign the statute, the U.S. Congress passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act — known informally as the “Hague Invasion Act” — which legally authorises the U.S. government to “use all means necessary” to protect its troops from ICC prosecutors. 

Since Article 98 of the Rome Statute does not require states to turn over wanted personnel to a third party if they have signed an immunity agreement with that party, the U.S. government has encouraged states to sign “Article 98 agreements” to give its troops immunity from prosecution.

Still, this did not deter ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (who held the post from 2012–2021) from studying evidence and issuing a preliminary report in 2016 on war crimes in Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan joined the ICC in 2003, giving the ICC and Bensouda jurisdiction to conduct their investigation. Even though it signed an Article 98 agreement with Afghanistan in 2002, the U.S. government fervently attacked the ICC’s investigation and warned Bensouda and her family that they would face personal repercussions if she continued with the investigation. 

In April 2019, the U.S. revoked Bensouda’s entry visa. Days later, a panel of ICC judges ruled against Bensouda’s request to proceed with a war crimes investigation in Afghanistan, stating that such an investigation would “not serve the interests of justice.”

Staff at the ICC were dismayed by the court’s decision and eager to challenge it but could not get support from the justices. In June 2019, Bensouda filed a request to appeal the ICC’s decision not to pursue the investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan.

Bensouda’s appeal was joined by various groups from Afghanistan, including the Afghan Victims’ Families Association and the Afghanistan Forensic Science Organisation. In September 2019, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC ruled that the appeal could go forward.

Dawn Okoro, Nigeria, “Doing It,” 2017.

The U.S. government was enraged. On June 11, 2020, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13928, which authorised his government to freeze ICC officials’ assets and ban them and their families from entering the United States.

In September 2020, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Bensouda, a national of Gambia, and senior ICC diplomat Phakiso Mochochoko, a national of Lesotho. The American Bar Association condemned these sanctions, but they were not revoked.

The U.S. government eventually repealed the sanctions in April 2021, after Bensouda left her post and was replaced by the British lawyer Karim Khan in February 2021.

In September 2021, ICC Prosecutor Khan said that while his office would continue to investigate war crimes by the Taliban and the Islamic State in Afghanistan, it would “deprioritise other aspects of this investigation.”

This awkward phrasing simply meant that the ICC would no longer investigate war crimes committed by the United States and its allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The ICC had been sufficiently brought to heel.

Alexander Nikolaev, also known as Usto Mumin, Soviet Union, “Friendship, Love, Eternity,” 1928. (Via Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

Prosecutor Khan again demonstrated his partial application of justice and fealty to the Global North ruling elites when he rushed into the conflict in Ukraine and began an investigation into war crimes by Russia just four days after its invasion in February 2022. 

Within a year, Khan would apply for warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, which were issued in March 2023. Specifically, they were charged with colluding to abduct children from Ukrainian orphanages and children’s care homes and take them to Russia, where – it was alleged – these children were “given for adoption.” 

Ukraine, Khan said, “is a crime scene.”

Khan would use no such words when it came to Israel’s murderous assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Even after more than 15,000 Palestinian children had been killed (rather than “adopted” from a war zone), Khan failed to pursue warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military subordinates.

When Khan visited Israel in November–December 2023, he warned about “excesses” but suggested that since “Israel has trained lawyers who advise commanders,” they could prevent any horrendous violations of international humanitarian law.

Ayoub Emdadian, Iran, “The Sapling of Liberty: 1973. (Via Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

By May 2024, the sheer scale of Israel’s brutality in Gaza finally forced the ICC to take up the issue. The orders from the ICJ, the outrage expressed by numerous governments of the Global South, and the cascading protests in country after country together motivated the ICC to act. 

On May 20, Khan held a press conference where he said that he filed applications for the arrest of Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his head of military, Yoav Gallant. 

Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said that the ICC accusations against Netanyahu and Gallant are “baseless” and that Israel will not comply with any ICC warrant. 

For decades now, Israel – like the United States – has rejected any attempt to apply international humanitarian law to its actions.

The “rules-based international order” has always provided immunity for the United States and its close allies, an immunity whose hypocrisy has increasingly been revealed. It is this double-standard that has provoked the collapse of the U.S.-driven world order.

Buried within Khan’s press statement is an interesting fragment: 

“I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate, or improperly influence the officials of this Court must cease immediately.” 

Eight days later, on May 28, The Guardian – in collaboration with other periodicals – published an investigation that revealed Israel’s use of “intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear, and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.”

Yossi Cohen, the former head of Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, personally harassed and threatened Bensouda (Khan’s predecessor), warning her, “You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.” 

Furthermore, The Guardian noted that, “Between 2019 and 2020, the Mossad had been actively seeking compromising information on the prosecutor and took an interest in her family members.”

“Took an interest” is a euphemistic way of saying gathered information on her family — including through a sting operation against her husband Philip Bensouda — to blackmail and frighten her. These are clichéd mafia tactics.

Hamed Abdalla, Egypt, “Conscience du Sol” 1956. (Via Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research)

As I followed these stories of the blood and law, I read the poems of Chechnya-born Jazra Khaleed, writing in Greek in Athens. His poem “Black Lips” stopped me in my tracks, the last stanzas powerful and bleak:

Come let me make you human,
you, Your Honor, who wipe guilt from your beard
you, esteemed journalist, who tout death
you, philanthropic lady, who pat children’s heads without bending down
and you who read this poem, licking your finger—
To all of you I offer my body for genuflection
Believe me
one day you will adore me like Christ

But I’m sorry for you sir—
I do not negotiate with chartered accountants of words
with art critics who eat from my hand
You may, if you desire, wash my feet
Don’t take it personally

Why do I need bullets if there are so many words
prepared to die for me?

Which words are slowly dying? Justice, perhaps, or even humanitarianism? So many words are thrown about to assuage the guilty and to confuse the innocent. But these words cannot muffle other words, words that describe horrors and that demand redress.

Words are important. So are people, such as Gustavo Cortiñas, who was arrested by the Argentinian military dictatorship on April 15, 1977, never to be seen again. He became one of the 30,000 people whom the military killed between 1976 and 1983.

On April 30, two weeks after Gustavo was arrested, his mother, Nora Cortiñas (or Norita, as she was lovingly known), joined other mothers of the disappeared to protest in front of the government house Casa Rosada, at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, the first in what became a regular feature.

Norita was a co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which courageously shattered the wall of misleading words that tumbled out of the mouths of the military Junta. Though her son was never found, Norita found her voice looking for him — a voice that was heard at every protest for justice and spoke with great feeling about the pain in the world until the weeks leading up to her death on 31 May. 

“We say no to the annexation of Palestine,” she said in a video message in 2020. “We oppose any measure that tends to erase the identity and existence of the Palestinian people.”

Norita leaves us with her precious words:

“Many years from now, I would like to be remembered as a woman who gave her all so that we could have a more dignified life… I would like to be remembered with that cry that I always say and that means everything I feel inside me, that means the hope that someday that other possible world will exist. A world for everyone. So, I would like to be remembered with a smile and for shouting loudly: “venceremos, venceremos, venceremos! We will win, we will win, we will win!”

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations.  His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and, with Noam Chomsky,  The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and the Fragility of U.S. Power.

This article is from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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CC Newsletter 20 April - Outrage as Judge Approves Assange Extradition to US

Dear Friend,

A British judge on Wednesday officially approved the U.S. government’s request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces espionage charges for publishing classified material that exposed war crimes by American forces.

If you think the contents of this newsletter are critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our newsletter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/.

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew

Editor

Countercurrents.org

Outrage as Judge Approves Assange Extradition to US

by Jake Johnson

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/outrage-as-judge-approves-assange-extradition-to-us/

A British judge on Wednesday officially approved the U.S. government’s request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces espionage charges for publishing classified material that

exposed war crimes by American forces.

In Praise of Partition

by David Stockman

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/in-praise-of-partition/

To wit, Ukraine could have been partitioned with autonomy for the Russian-speaking Donbas provinces – or even accession to the Russian state from which these communities had essentially originated. So the appalling truth of the matter is this: Adding insult to injury after its blatantly foolish and reckless coup in February 2014, Washington now insists that the grandsons and granddaughters of Stalin’s industrial army in the Donbas are to be ruled by the grandsons and granddaughters of Hitler’s collaborators in Kiev, whether they like it or not.

Putin  and Modi  –  Comrades-in-arms

by Sumanta Banerjee

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/putin-and-modi-comrades-in-arms/

I  would like to  throw  light  on  another  area  where  Modi  and    Putin  look  like  blood  brothers.  It  is  the  field  of  their  domestic  policies    and

administration  —  where  they  follow  a  common  model  which  displays  mirror  images  of  each  other.

Unclear Federal Law Allows Logging, Farming and Mining to Threaten America’s Biodiverse Ecosystems

by Sam Davis

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/unclear-federal-law-allows-logging-farming-and-mining-to-threaten-americas-biodiverse-ecosystems/

The recent decision by the Supreme Court to look into “limiting the scope” of “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS), which is an important part of the Clean Water Act of 1972, is likely to further threaten America’s biodiverse ecosystems. The Clean Water Act refers to WOTUS but does not clearly define it, leaving its definition up for interpretation by the government and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the Supreme Court.

Goa’s political apparatus eyes destabilization of Goa’s pristine ecology – Needed a Peoples Watch

by Dr Ranjan Solomon

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/goas-political-apparatus-eyes-destabilization-of-goas-pristine-ecology-needed-a-peoples-watch/

Unless an alert, agile and independent expert civil society monitors environmental policies, there will be gross mismanagement and multiple faultlines. Take that in writing!

How did the alienation of Muslims stop? Justice Sachar’s way

by Dr Prem Singh

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/how-did-the-alienation-of-muslims-stop-justice-sachars-way-2/

This tribute to Justice Rajinder Sachar had been written on his second death anniversary, 20 April 2020, and was published in several magazines/portals. The same has been reissued on the occasion of his fourth death anniversary, 20 April 2022.

Hate and Communal Violence: Changing Anatomy

by Dr Ram Puniyani

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/hate-and-communal-violence-changing-anatomy/

What has been seen in the recent times is that the hate spreaders are well backed up and protected by the state,

giving encouragement to such elements to carry on with their negative actions in the society. It is time civil society and political organizations give priority to curtail the Hate speech, provocative slogans and processions with potential of provoking violence.

New pedagogy practices in Indian school Education: the vent between vision and acquisition

by Malini Mukherjee

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/new-pedagogy-practices-in-indian-school-education-the-vent-between-vision-and-acquisition/

Many articles and papers have been written in the past on these theories,  and much of these have been prescribed by The National Curriculum Framework (2005), but I felt the need to discuss why the implementation has failed over time, as it might throw some light on what could be done in future. This paper is more from the perspective of a practitioner, and I attempt to summarise my inferences from years of observing several classrooms across India.

Petition asking for Nobel Prize for

GN Saibaba launched

Press Release

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/petition-asking-for-nobel-prize-for-gn-saibaba-launched/

Radical Desi had previously initiated a petition for the release of Prof. G.N. Saibaba, who is being incarcerated under brutal conditions in spite of being disabled below the waist. Now it has begun an online petition ( https://www.change.org/p/nobel-prize-for-gn-saibaba) asking for the Nobel prize in recognition of his advocacy for the poor and marginalized.

RSN: Prosecutors' Plea Deal Required Drug Suspect to Name Breonna Taylor a 'Co-Defendant'

 

 

03 September 20

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Prosecutors' Plea Deal Required Drug Suspect to Name Breonna Taylor a 'Co-Defendant'

Vanessa Romo, NPR
Romo writes: "A man charged with running a drug syndicate was offered a plea deal in July if he would name Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman who had been killed by police in her Louisville, Ky., apartment, as a member of his alleged criminal gang, according to the man's attorney."
READ MORE

San Leandro Police officer charged with shooting death of Steven Taylor. (photo: San Leandro Police)

Officer Captured on Video Killing Black Man in Walmart Charged With Manslaughter
Tim Stelloh, NBC News
Stelloh writes: "A California police officer who was captured on video fatally shooting a Black man who had a baseball bat inside a Walmart this year was charged Wednesday with voluntary manslaughter, authorities said."

The office of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said that Steven Taylor, 33, did not pose an imminent threat to anyone in the store or to the officer, Jason Fletcher, when he shot Taylor to death April 18.

“The decision to file the criminal complaint was made after an intensive investigation and thorough analysis of the evidence and the current law,” O'Malley said in a statement.

A security guard at the San Leandro Walmart, southeast of Oakland, called 911 after Taylor tried to leave the store with a baseball bat and a tent without paying, the statement said.

In disturbing cellphone and body-camera video of the encounter, Taylor can be seen standing in the store’s checkout area when Fletcher approaches him and tries unsuccessfully to take the bat.

Taylor backs up several feet, bat in hand, and Fletcher tells him to drop it, which he doesn’t. From a distance of roughly 17 feet, according to the DA's statement, Fletcher drew a stun gun, then fired as Taylor moved toward him.

The prosecutor’s office said Taylor was “clearly” in shock after he was stunned and struggled to remain standing with the bat pointed toward the floor. In the video, customers can be heard shouting “put it down, put it down,” before Fletcher opened fire, striking Taylor in the chest.

In the video, Taylor then tosses the bat to the floor and walks a few feet before collapsing. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The San Leandro Police Officers Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Fletcher’s lawyer, Michael Rains.

Rains told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was “very disappointed” in the charges, which he said were “undeserved.”

“I am very confident that the jury hearing all the evidence in this case will acquit this officer in short order,” he told the newspaper.

A lawyer for Taylor’s family, Lee Merritt, has said that Taylor was struggling with a mental health crisis when Fletcher shot him to death. “It was [an] involuntarily break from reality,” Merritt said. “He needed help. He got brutality.”

In a statement Wednesday, San Leandro Police Chief Jeff Tudor said he knew the “sudden loss” of Taylor had “deeply affected” San Leandro, a city of roughly 90,000. “It is important that we allow the judicial process to take its course,” he said.

The charges were filed under a bill signed into law last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom that limited when officers can use deadly force. Under the previous law, a killing could be considered justified if it was "reasonable" and the person had committed a felony and was fleeing or resisting arrest. The new law states that officers can use deadly force only when necessary to defend human life.

A study published earlier this year by researchers at Harvard found that Black people in the San Francisco Bay Area are five times more likely to die in an encounter with police than whites. The California legislature estimated that between one-third and half of fatal police encounters involve people with mental health issues and intellectual or physical disabilities.

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Texas's 38 electoral college votes are seemingly in play this November. (photo: Bob Daemmrich/Shutterstock)

Democrats Push to Register One Million Voters in Attempt to Rip Texas From Trump
Alexandra Villarreal, Guardian UK
Villarreal writes: "As the United States barrels toward the presidential election in November, could Democrats possibly come out on top simply through a massive effort on voter registration? They think they can, and Texas is key."
READ MORE

Amazon facility. (photo: Shutterstock)

Amazon Is Hiring an Intelligence Analyst to Track 'Labor Organizing Threats'
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, VICE
Franceschi-Bicchierai writes: "Amazon is looking to hire two intelligence analysts to track 'labor organizing threats' within the company."
READ MORE

The 3-mile border fence along the shore of the Rio Grande will fail during extreme flooding, according to an engineering report that is set to be filed in federal court this week. (photo: Brenda Bazán/The Texas Tribune)

New Engineering Report Finds Privately Built Border Wall Will Fail
Jeremy Schwartz and Perla Trevizo, ProPublica
Excerpt: "It's not a matter of if a privately built border fence along the shores of the Rio Grande will fail, it's a matter of when, according to a new engineering report on the troubled project."
READ MORE

International Criminal Court Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, seen here in 2018, has been added to the U.S. Treasury's sanctions list. She is leading the court's investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. (photo: Bas Czerwinski/AP)

Trump Administration Sanctions ICC Prosecutor Investigating Alleged US War Crimes
UN News
Excerpt: "The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday noted 'with concern' the imposition by the United States of sanctions against the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and another senior official, in the latest of a series of unilateral policy moves against the body."
READ MORE

Dusk in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from the Empire State Building in Manhattan. (photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty)

'At the Forefront of Climate Change,' Hoboken, New Jersey, Seeks Damages From ExxonMobil
David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News
Hasemyer writes: "The city of Hoboken, New Jersey, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking damages from ExxonMobil and other major oil and gas companies for misleading the public about the harmful climate-related impacts such as sea level rise they knew would be caused by burning fossil fuels."

The city joined a long line of state and local litigants alleging Big Oil knew burning fossil fuels caused climate-related problems like sea level rise.

he city of Hoboken, New Jersey, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking damages from ExxonMobil and other major oil and gas companies for misleading the public about the harmful climate-related impacts such as sea level rise they knew would be caused by burning fossil fuels. 

The city cast itself as a prime example of an oceanside community "at the forefront of climate change," as Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in announcing the lawsuit.  

Less than five miles from midtown Manhattan in New York City, Hoboken is uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise, according to the lawsuit filed in Hudson County Superior Court. It set forth nuisance, trespass and negligence claims, as well as violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

"As America's fifth-densest city, its residents and infrastructure are integrally connected to its 1.5 miles of coastline," the lawsuit said. "More than half of Hoboken's residents, half of its schools and all of its hospitals, rail and ferry stations, and hazardous waste sites are within five feet of its high tide line.

"Sea level rise therefore threatens major sections of Hoboken with flooding at high tide."

Global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, electric utilities and other industrial processes has caused the sea level to rise by nearly a foot in and around Hoboken, which is considerably more than the average around the world, the lawsuit said, adding: "Multiple additional feet of sea level rise are projected in the coming decades as a result of fossil fuel use."

The number of high tide flood days has already more than doubled since 2000, the lawsuit said, while climate change also threatens the city with more frequent and severe flooding from storm surge during coastal storms.

Other defendants named in the lawsuit include BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade association.

"The climate harms masked by defendants' half-century of deception have now slammed into the shores of Hoboken," the lawsuit said. 

A representative of Exxon did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul Afonso, a senior vice president & chief legal officer for API, defended the organization, saying "the record of the past two decades demonstrates that the industry has achieved its goal of providing affordable, reliable American energy to U.S. consumers while substantially reducing emissions and our environmental footprint. Any suggestion to the contrary is false."

The lawsuit's fraud claim centers on documents showing that the fossil fuel industry has known for decades that the use of its products would result in catastrophic climate consequences.  The lawsuit credits a 2015  InsideClimate News series and a later story in the Los Angeles Times for revealing the extent of Exxon's knowledge, going back to the 1970s, about the central role of fossil fuels in causing climate change.

Hoboken is the 20th municipality, state or private organization to sue the fossil fuel industry over climate change since 2017. Other plaintiffs include Baltimore, Oakland and San Francisco; numerous counties in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New York and Washington; and the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Minnesota.

In the wake of hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy, Hoboken invested $500 million to build flood protection along its waterfront, including underground cisterns to store excess water and pump stations to expel storm water, the lawsuit said.

"Hoboken is at the forefront of climate change and our residents are literally paying the price," Mayor Bhalla said in announcing the lawsuit on Facebook.

"This shouldn't have to be on the backs of our residents and other government entities to shoulder the burden of these costs," Bhalla said. "We cannot stand idly by and allow big oil to continue profiteering at the expense of Hoboken residents. It's time these companies pay their fair share and be held accountable for their actions and their role in climate change."

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages associated with the destruction of city-owned property from flooding, loss of tax revenue because of depressed property values and the slowdown of economic activity in the face of the on-going threat of climate change-induced severe weather.

"The fossil fuels driving defendants' billion-dollar profits, and defendants' lies about the risks of fossil fuels, are the cause of both the escalating climate harms experienced by Hoboken and the enormous costs the city now must undertake to abate them," the lawsuit said.

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