On Tuesday, June 14, 2016—35 years after Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor known as Osiraq—an Iraqi official announced Iraq would seek financial compensation for the destruction at Osiraq by suing for the enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 487. Resolution 487 condemned the attack as a “clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct,” and ordered Israel to pay Iraq appropriate redress for the damage.
As the 40th anniversary of Israel’s attack on Osiraq approaches, and
in light of Iraq’s public revival of the issue in international legal circles and the reemergence of nuclear proliferation as a global threat, this Article capitalizes on nearly four decades of hindsight to provide the public a thorough, yet accessible, defense of Israel’s decision to destroy Osiraq. Applying international law both pre- and post-United Nations (U.N.) Charter, this Article weighs civil, military, and economic considerations to reconstruct Israel’s 1981 position. This Article concludes Israel was wholly justified in acting preemptively, and that such a conclusion should inform how the international community understands preemptive self-defense under international law.
(Contact author for a copy of the full article; published in Volume 53 of the George Washington International Law Review.).
