with, this was more so a political ploy than a matter of factuality, given that Palestine was under a League of Nations colonial mandate prior to the creation of Israel.54 Furthermore, international criminal law, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC) and potential ad hoc tribunals, have the purported potential to serve as a space where colonized peoples can hold their colonizers accountable. Although this avenue is limited as it does not consider colonization as a crime in and of itself, it still presents an avenue to deal with the various crimes that perpetrators commit in a colonial context, including the international crimes of forcible transfer and apartheid.55 As such, it can be utilized in the case of Palestine to hold accountable those accused of committing international crimes and implement reconciliation measures amongst Palestinians and JewishIsraelis. 2.4. Past Case Studies of Decolonization The UN, through its various mechanisms and committees, has made multiple attempts to facilitate the decolonization of states and peoples under colonial rule, with varying levels of success. The extent of success (or failure) of past decolonization cases has almost always been directly correlated with the level of political will and international mobilization. This is because it is the application of legal principles and mechanisms that determine their effectiveness, not their mere existence. The UN’s intervention in the decolonization of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, is argued to have demonstrated how the UN “had failed to exercise global governance free of [Great Power politics 54 See Kattan (n 48); Mandate for Palestine (n 48). 55 See Noura Erakat and John Reynolds, ‘We Charge Apartheid? Palestine and the International Criminal Court’ (TWAILR: Reflections, 20 April 2020) <https://twailr.com/we-chargeapartheid-palestine-and-the-international-criminal-court/> accessed 5 April 2023. 15