By: George Kurzom
https://www.maan-ctr.org/magazine/article/4249/
Mass graves at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis
Exclusive to Environment and Development Horizons (Afaq magazine):
Despite the blatant humanitarian catastrophe on live broadcast and more than eight months having elapsed since the bloody crimes and forced displacement, the international community has appeared largely helpless and paralyzed, seemingly unwilling to intervene and put an end to the dreadful, wholesale killing around the clock.
The United Nations Security Council, responsible for preserving international peace and security, did not take decisive action as the United States of America repeatedly exercised its veto against resolutions calling for a ceasefire. When the United States finally abstained from voting on the formal resolution that calls on Israel for an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, it enabled Israel to continue its actions, stating that “the resolution is not binding.”
To a large extent, the International Court of Justice, which has the authority to adjudicate disputes between states, has been marginalized. Although the rulings of this court are legally binding, its ability to enforce its decisions is limited.
Failure of international institutions
The discrepancy in the international community's response to Israeli aggression against Gaza compared to its reaction to the Russian war in Ukraine is evident. The swift condemnation and call for strong measures against Russia starkly contrast with the lack of urgency and commitment in addressing the situation in Palestine. Western countries, in particular, continued to provide military and financial support to Israel despite compelling evidence of human rights violations and war crimes. This selective "outrage" exposes the political and ideological hypocrisy within the international system, which is predominantly influenced by the United States and lacks moral consistency in conflict resolution.
The lack of intervention by the international community to stop the Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip has underscored the limitations and incapacity of the current international institutions and frameworks to address the conflict. The United Nations, established in the aftermath of World War II to prevent such atrocities, has been largely ineffective in handling the crisis in Gaza. The Security Council's ability to reach a consensus was hampered by the veto power of its permanent members, which has undermined the organization's credibility and effectiveness.
Likewise, The International Criminal Court, tasked with investigating and prosecuting individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has faced obstacles due to the lack of cooperation from states and the political nature of its procedures. Its ongoing investigation into the Palestinian situation has not yet yielded tangible results despite several years of effort.
The international system's evident hypocrisy and its failure to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes in the Gaza Strip persist, despite the United Nations General Assembly adopting a resolution last December. The majority of 153 members called for a humanitarian ceasefire and the guarantee of humanitarian aid access to Gaza. Additionally, various UN reports, including The United Nations Independent Investigation Commission, have confirmed that the actions of the Israeli army during the period of aggression in Gaza may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report cited evidence of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, unprecedented mass killing, the use of disproportionate force, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and residential complexes. Indeed, the United Nations Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, confirmed in her report issued last March that “the evidence of genocide in Gaza is clear” and “what we are seeing in Gaza is a set of unprecedented war crimes.”
In a speech delivered last May during the opening of the “Maghreb-Mashreq Social Forum” in Tunisia, Albanese unequivocally stated, “I assert without reservation that the situation in Gaza is not a war, but a genocide, even though Western countries are hesitant to use the term genocide.”
Last April, the Human Rights Council (affiliated with the United Nations) adopted a resolution prohibiting the export of weapons to the occupying state and calling for it to be held accountable for the war crimes and crimes against humanity it is committing in the Gaza Strip. However, despite the passage of six months since the Israeli aggression when the decision was issued, no significant pressure from the United States or Europe was exerted to halt the destructive war against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, no practical measures have been taken to compel the countries and companies supplying weapons to the occupying state to adhere to the resolution.
Total Chaos and Impunity
Most horrific is the official Western silence in general, and the American silence in particular, in the face of hundreds of horrific Israeli war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent of which are the mass graves in various parts of the Strip, especially the mass graves in Palestinian medical complexes, such as the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, where they were exhumed. Hundreds of bodies buried by Israeli forces in mass graves in the hospital courtyards. Likewise, the mass graves in the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, where about 400 Palestinian bodies were discovered, some without heads, hidden by the Israeli army in large pits, noting that some of the martyrs were buried alive.
Despite all of the above, some Western countries, especially the United States of America, have continued and continue to fuel the Israeli killing machine with the latest lethal weapons, thus encouraging the occupying state to continue committing more mass human massacres.
Indeed, American "arrogance" reached its peak when the US Congress threatened, last May, to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court and to personally target the court's prosecutor (Karim Khan), his family, and the court's staff, if the court decided to issue arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu (the Israeli Prime Minister) and senior Israeli military leaders. Later, in the same month, following his request to issue arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Yoav Gallant, his Minister of Defense, Karim Khan revealed (in an interview with CNN) that he had been subjected to threats from Republican representatives who told him, “This court was built for Africa and for thugs like Putin."
In the context of defending the occupying state and its policy of silencing mouths, and striking the raging popular and student protests in North America and some European countries against Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip and the human massacres committed there, the matter has reached some Western governments, most notably the American one, to the point of trampling on slogans, concepts and values of academic and intellectual freedoms, freedom of expression, and democracy even within their countries, as happened during the peaceful student uprising that affected prestigious American universities that teach their students these concepts and values, where the security forces forcefully suppressed student demonstrations and sit-ins, humiliated male and female students, dragged them out, and arrested thousands of male and female students and faculty members. Like the scenes we see in some “police states” in the Third World, in a horrific moral, cultural and political fall, and in flagrant violation of the laws and constitutions of the Western countries themselves; which have long been exporting lessons to southern societies about those constitutions and the concepts of democracy, human and women’s rights they contain, considering that the American and European value system is the ideal and reference that the world must imitate.
Ironically, The US State Department issues an annual report monitoring the human rights situation in all countries of the world. It is worth noting that the last report was issued last April, during the student uprisings in American universities. This highlights the US's position as a human rights arbiter over all countries of the world.
Translated by: Rasha Abu Dayyeh
