The Israeli war on Gaza has already been an unprecedented, literal war on the United Nations, with more than 160 UN workers killed, the highest death toll of UN staff in history, and more than 150 UN facilities attacked and sometimes destroyed, including schools and shelters.

But it now appears to be turning into another kind of war on the UN: against the institution’s legitimacy and the system of international law more broadly.

This week served as a dramatic example, when, in a vote on Monday, the fifteen-member UN Security Council (UNSC) nearly unanimously passed a resolution that “demands” an immediate cease-fire in Gaza until the end of Ramadan, with only the United States abstaining. Multiple Biden administration officials immediately dismissed the resolution as “nonbinding.” Yet most of the international law experts Jacobin spoke to say their charge is inaccurate.