“Israel’s continued implementation of violent and extremist policies is a time bomb depriving the region of any serious opportunity for stability in the foreseeable future.”
– Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League chief
As the world reels in horror over an unprecedented Israel’s war in occupied Palestine that started on October 7, more than 2,750 people have been killed and many more injured in Gaza.
Israel has since unleashed its heaviest-ever bombing campaign on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as the besieged Palestinian enclave faces a growing humanitarian catastrophe. As usual, the Western countries including USA have keep their unwavering supports behind Israel’s indiscriminate brutality in the guise of right to defend the ‘controversial state’.
You Can Also Read: Freedom of Speech: American Hypocrisy Exposed in Israel
Western politicians as well as their so called ‘free media’ often represent themselves as the pioneers of the human rights across the world, now keeping mum and turning a blind eye to 75 years of brutality and occupation.
Israel violating international laws in Palestine
Israel has long been occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it controls these areas through repression, institutionalized discrimination, and systematic abuses of the Palestinian population’s rights. At least five categories of major violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law characterize the occupation: unlawful killings; forced displacement; abusive detention; the closure of the Gaza Strip and other unjustified restrictions on movement; and the development of settlements, along with the accompanying discriminatory policies that disadvantage Palestinians.
Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing to already overwhelmed areas in the south of Gaza through unsafe conditions that could especially pose a risk to children, more than 447 of whom have already been killed in Israeli air strikes since Saturday. The situation is so horrific that at least 1,000 bodies still under Gaza rubble and people are afraid to bury the dead.
The Israel’s military order to evacuate some 1.1 million people has piled panic on the besieged population, who are already struggling under a “total siege” imposed by Israel, in response to a deadly attack by Hamas resistance forces that has killed over 1,400 people inside Israel.
Some pro-Palestinian activists have argued that the recent attacks are justified under United Nations resolution 37/43, which affirms the right of people under “foreign domination and foreign occupation” to pursue freedom “by all available means, including armed struggle.”
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territory, has warned that Palestinians may be facing another “Nakba”, or forced expulsion from their land. The Nakba — or “catastrophe” in Arabic — refers to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the territory during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
In addition, with Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in already the shattered territory, it also cut off access to food, fuel, medicine and other supplies medicine – in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention. As time is running out, the World Health Organization stressed that the delivery of aid to Gaza “must happen immediately”. International organizations have been calling for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, claiming that Gaza’s medical facilities are at “breaking point “. So far, Israel has refused to budge, and has bombed the Rafah crossing that connects the enclave to Egypt.
Power and generators that have stopped working are also putting newborns in incubators at risk, according to a statement from Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross regional director for the Near and Middle East. Experts have said that the widespread chaos children have experienced is already going to have a grave and long-lasting effect on their psychological and emotional wellbeing.
World reacts Israel’s brutality in Palestine
Global community including majority of global south countries, Arab and African nations condemned Israel’s indiscriminately bombing and ‘total siege’ of the Gaza enclave. However, Majority of them also voiced against surprised Hamas’ attack inside Israel that killed hundreds of civilians.
The UN’s Human Rights Council announced it already has “clear evidence” of war crimes committed by both sides. On Gaza, it said: “The Commission is gravely concerned with … Israel’s announcement of a complete siege on Gaza … which will undoubtfully cost civilian lives and constitutes collective punishment.” An Independent International Commission of Inquiry is investigating.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit urged an immediate halt to military operations in Gaza and the cycle of armed confrontation between the two sides. “Israel’s continued implementation of violent and extremist policies is a time bomb depriving the region of any serious opportunity for stability in the foreseeable future.”
United Nations Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said: “This is a dangerous precipice and I appeal to all to pull back from the brink.” China said it was “deeply concerned” by the weekend’s dramatic escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging all sides to show “calm”. Russia has urged all side for restraint and said it is in contact with Israel, the Palestinians and Arab countries.
USA, West turning a blind eye to Israel’s heinous crime against humanity
USA and European countries often portrait themselves as the savior of the humanity and human rights across the world.
USA and its allies often impose sanctions, visa restrictions and other punishment measures to different countries in the world alleging of violating human rights and democracy. But in the cases of Israel, the collective west shuts its ‘humanitarian’ eyes, letting Israel committing grave violations of international laws and killing thousands of innocent Palestinians.
With Israel attacking Gaza for a second week, United States President Joe Biden and his administration are sticking to a long-established script in Washington, expressing unequivocal support for Israel and its “legitimate right to defend itself” from Hamas’s rocket attacks.
That narrative fails to acknowledge the profound advantages the state of Israel enjoys over the Palestinians when it comes to military prowess, wealth and resources. The US nevertheless has continued its unconditional aid to Israel, which has totaled $158 billion since World War II. Shortly after the 1967 war, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem and declared it part of its “eternal, undivided” capital.
On December 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced a shift in decades of US policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy there. Since Israel considers East Jerusalem part of its state, it calls the illegal settlements there “neighbourhoods”.
On 7 October, the US unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas ‘terrorists’ against Israeli civilians. But Watson’s use of the word “unprovoked” is surely a hypocrisy.
What exactly counts as a provocation? Not, apparently, the large number of settlers, who stormed al-Aqsa mosque. Not the 248 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces between 1 January and 4 October of this year. Not the denial of Palestinian human rights and national aspirations for decades.
There are internationally accorded rights to resist to foreign occupation but western bloc blithely denies Palestinians any way to resist their occupation. Even non-violent methods of resistance like the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign are vilified and even criminalized. Why the double standard?
One fundamental way this double standard operates is through a false equivalence, a two-sides-ism that hides the massive asymmetry of power between the state of Israel and the scattered population groupings that make up the Palestinian people. They’re not equal. One dominates while the other is dominated. One colonizes. The other is colonized.
Today, between 600,000 and 750,000 Israelis live in various illegal settlements beyond the internationally recognized borders of their state occupying the Palestinians ancestral land, demolishing their home and forcing them to be refugee in other parts of the Palestine or elsewhere. But USA and Western governments fails to denounce or take any actions to prevent these forced expulsions like they expressed concern over Ukrainians or Uyghurs displacement.
The ongoing Palestinians resistance and Israel’s horrific bloodshed may continue in the future but the western attachment to morally bankrupt double standards bear a large portion of the blame.
