EDITORIAL: As the world passively watches the horror of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and relentless violence in the occupied West Bank, one of the darkest chapters in modern history, UN’s rights experts have demanded that Israel should be made to face consequences for its actions.
Talking to journalists on Monday, George Katrougalos, special rapporteur on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order, appeared to be alluding to Western apathy towards the Palestinian people as he called for holding Israel to the same standards as all countries, and condemned the attacks on critical UN officials or agencies, saying “we cannot anymore stand this kind of double standards and hypocrisy”.
And UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese, who has been countenancing harsh verbal attacks from Tel Aviv for holding a mirror to it, warned that “it is unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless vilifying assault on the United Nations [and] Palestinians.”
That though is unlikely to happen. While the US and its European allies never tire of lecturing other countries, especially Russia and China, on human rights and democracy, when it comes to Israel international law, moral principles and humanitarian considerations all take a back seat.
US President Joe Biden, a Zionist by his own words, has been rightly nicknamed by protesters in his country as ‘Genocide Joe’. Besides providing Israel with arms and using veto power to reject all UN Security Council resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza, he has been funding and arming the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
At around the time the Palestinian death toll reached 41,957 — most of them women and children — and countless others were wounded or lay buried under the rubble of their homes or temporary shelters, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart to reiterate Washington’s “ironclad” support, making one to wonder how many innocent lives will it take for the ‘Leader of the Free World’ to halt its friend’s horrendous crimes against humanity. Sadly, the governments of Arab states, except for Saudi Arabia and Qatar, also remain unmoved by what is happening to their Arab brothers.
Not only have they done nothing to stop genocide of Gaza Palestinians and ruthless atrocities in the occupied West Bank, some of them who established diplomatic relations with Israel in the so-called ‘Abraham Accords’ sponsored by the Trump administration, continue to maintain those ties even as some Latin American states have either broken or suspended diplomatic relations with Israel.
The Jewish state may not be about to become a pariah, but it could get more than it has bargained for. Nearly a year into its war on Gaza, Hamas’ new chief Yahya Sinwar, who last month succeeded Ismail Haniyeh assassinated by Israel, told his Yemeni allies in a letter, “We have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition.”
Another Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, has been quoted as saying his group “has a high ability to continue fighting despite losses”, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace those martyred.
Meanwhile, Israel has intensified attacks on Hezbollah, another member of the “Axis of Resistance”, increasing fears of a large-scale regional conflagration. Upping the ante it planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers Hezbollah had purportedly imported from Taiwan and weaponising technology detonated them on Tuesday killing 12 people, including two children, and injuring nearly 3,000 others.
The following day it targeted walkie-talkies carried by Hezbollah fighters that left 14 people dead and 450 wounded. This will not go unanswered. No one knows what is to happen next, but the ongoing escalation could trigger an all-out war with disastrous consequences for the wider Middle East region, including Israel.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments