International rhetoric aids Israel’s impunity

Israel allowed nine trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza on a completely flawed premise in which the international community is completely complicit. Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the international community has selected which actions to condemn, and the starvation policy took precedence even over the so-called humanitarian pauses.

Looking at the bigger picture, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strategically decided it would be better to placate international uneasiness with starving people to death, knowing that there would be no condemnation of other means of ethnic cleansing Israel will use. The Israeli government has made no secret of its intention to colonise Gaza, and the international community is only concerned about Palestinians starving to death.  Killed by other means does not feature in international concern, especially when the international community keeps genocide out of the equation.

Instead of genocide, the Western leaders speak of ‘the situation’.

“It is a really serious, unacceptable, intolerable situation,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said of starvation in Gaza. Ursula von der Leyen followed suit with “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also referred to the “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Of course, let us not forget the UN constantly referring to ‘the situation’; one of the latest statements being by UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay who said, “The situation remains extremely volatile and unpredictable.”

But what is happening is Gaza is a colonial-based genocide. Starvation is being used as a  genocidal weapon. These are not situations but premeditated actions aimed at annihilating all Palestinians from Gaza.  It is abominable to have almost the entire world refuse to speak up and at least utter the word genocide, when Israel is clearly articulating its aims.

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Israel is also making it clear that the negligible resumption of humanitarian aid is for diplomatic purposes. The international community referring to genocide and humanitarian deprivation as ‘the situation’ sets the tone for Israel’s narrative.

What is happening in Gaza and what Gaza is now, is not a situation. Israel targeting Gaza is the latest in a series of steps that were normalised by the international community, so that the latter would eventually normalise genocide. It didn’t take long, either. Since the earlier debates on whether Israel’s actions constitute genocide, the international community has not yet collectively used the term genocide to describe Israel’s aims and actions in Gaza.

Take a look at the joint statement by the UK, France and Canada that was published yesterday. “The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law,” the text partly states. World leaders are still questioning whether Israel’s actions breach international humanitarian law. With such doubt cast, the international community can keep using rhetoric such as ‘the situation’, because according to those in power, genocide is not only still debatable, but not even considered.

This is because, as in all of Israel’s previous aggressions against Gaza, the Palestinian experience was always discounted by the international community. Unless, of course, the humanitarian paradigm could score Western leaders some diplomatic points. Now that Netanyahu is using the same script, what comes next in ‘the situation’?

What comes next in genocide?

BLOG: A veneer for genocide

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