Israel has taken hypocrisy to a new level

At first glance, it might seem as if Israel has caught up with the consistent warnings regarding the dire situation faced by Palestinians in Gaza. Almost three years since Operation Protective Edge and following numerous disturbing reports, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) coordinator Major General Yoav Mordechai advised the UN of Gaza’s “impending humanitarian crisis” by means of a letter addressed to the UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov.

Duplicity being an inherent trait in Israeli actions, the letter cited infrastructural problems as the cause of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, while blaming Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for the enclave’s deterioration. According to Haaretz, Mordechai pointed out the absence and restriction of basic needs with regard to water and electricity. The details of deprivation imposed upon Palestinians are known not only to the UN but to the entire world. Israel has now opted to recognise such information, albeit with sinister motives of its own.

Previous UN reports have stressed the possibility of Gaza becoming uninhabitable by 2020. Such warnings do not trouble Israel, which has systematically ensured that Gaza remains isolated politically and economically; the result being a severe deprivation of humanitarian issues. Israel’s role is the missing element in Mordechai’s recent overtures. This tactical elimination of responsibility and accountability translates to Israel seeking assurances from the international community that previous and forthcoming aggressions against Gaza are interpreted solely through the Israeli narrative.

Read: Israeli airstrikes damage electricity supplies in Gaza

If no responsibility for the atrocities and the ensuing destruction of Gaza is placed upon Israel, the colonial entity has a precedent upon which to assert its purported right to defence in case the current implosion reaches a culmination. The international community will, undoubtedly, comply, given its preference for dissociation. The epicentre of this rigmarole lies in the fact that both the international community and Israel are scheming, from seemingly different ends, to arrive at a common assertion which, due to its appeal, will not garner any mobilisation efforts against Israeli colonial violence.

Mordechai’s rhetoric indicates that, in the case of another premeditated massacre against Gaza, the current humanitarian premise will provide ample space for political manoeuvre. This, in turn, allows Israel to regurgitate its decades-long security discourse – something which the UN is not averse to and indeed upheld even while Palestinian civilians in Gaza were being bombed, displaced and murdered.

Israel’s apparent concern, therefore, should be interpreted as an adamant statement seeking justification for any forthcoming intervention in Gaza. While the content of the letter – the highlighting of humanitarian concerns by a participant in the colonial process – has added nothing substantive to the dearth of information already available, one should take note of how Israel, once again, has excluded its role in perpetuating the current situation in Gaza for its own benefit. Knowing full well that the UN will not extend any tangible help that can at least halt, if not reverse, hardships for Palestinians in the enclave, Israel’s aim is to facilitate the implosion and hasten a possible collapse for which neither of the complicit actors will claim responsibility.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.