We live in a world where double standards are blatant. A dangerous message has been sent by the international community’s top policymakers that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli lives and that international humanitarian law can be applied selectively.
The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the targeting of civilians and essential civilian infrastructure in armed conflicts. And yet, Israeli bombings of civilian hospitals, schools and apartment buildings in Gaza have drawn quiet criticism; rather, it is justified by Israel’s right to self-defense.
There is also no mention of the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves against such blatant violations of international law, nor of their right to basic human rights in the context of an inhumane and illegal occupation that has lasted for 75 years. .
Under occupation laws that are part of the law of armed conflict, Israel does not have the “right to defend itself” using military means since it is the occupying power. This is a fact and not an allegation. This was confirmed by the International Court of Justice in a 2004 ruling.
As an occupying power, Israel can use the tools applicable to the rule of law, including police powers to combat criminal actions. An occupying state cannot exercise control over the territory it occupies and simultaneously attack that territory militarily by claiming that it is “foreign” and poses an exogenous threat to national security.
The notion of Israel’s right to defend itself by military means has been wrongly used by some and deliberately by others to justify its illegal use of force against the population of Gaza and the West Bank.
We categorically reject myopic and distorted international responses that ignore the context and root causes of this war, namely Israel’s systemic oppression of the Palestinians, occupation of their lands and their ongoing ethnic cleansing.
International human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as local NGOs – including at least 17 Israeli organizations – have called Israel’s oppressive military occupation of Palestinian land a crime of apartheid.
They condemn Israel’s cruel 17-year blockade of Gaza, as it has created the world’s largest open-air prison, in which 2.3 million Palestinians cannot freely enter or leave this confined strip of land, while the supply of water, electricity and goods remains. at the discretion of their occupants.
When Palestinians resorted to non-violent protests, they were shot with live ammunition. This is what happened to black South Africans who peacefully demonstrated against apartheid conditions in 1960 and were gunned down by their oppressors. The futility of non-violent resistance to oppression is what gave rise to armed struggle in South Africa, which was also the case in Palestine.
Under international law, those living under occupation have the right to resist. Armed struggle against a colonial occupying force is not only recognized by international law, but is specifically approved. Wars of national liberation were expressly embraced by the adoption of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 as a protected and essential right of occupied people everywhere.
But just as South African freedom fighters have been branded terrorists and most Western governments have turned their backs on our people’s rights to freedom, human rights and self-determination, the rights of Palestinians’ security, human rights and self-determination in their own land have been ignored or paid lip service to by governments around the world for far too long.
There is no Middle East “peace process” and no intention on the part of the current Israeli government to compromise on the land issue or on the creation of a viable Palestinian state. There can be no lasting peace without a negotiated political solution ensuring that Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace.
Unfortunately, the current trajectory is led by Israeli extremists who seek to seize Palestinian lands entirely by force, regardless of the consequences in human lives or total destruction. Likewise, the desperation of the occupation has also led to extremism on the Palestinian side and the targeting of Israeli civilians, which is prohibited under international law.
The killings and kidnappings of Israeli civilians must also be condemned, and the world has done so. But Israel’s disproportionate use of force and the cruel and unconscionable collective punishment of a besieged and powerless people were not only accepted, but made possible.
When Russia used similar tactics in Ukraine, it was roundly condemned and punished through the harshest set of economic sanctions the world has seen. But in the case of Israel’s bombing of civilians and critical infrastructure in Gaza, there has been no sanction or marginalization, only unconditional and unqualified support from most Western governments.
It was citizens on the streets of Arab, Asian, Latin American, African and Western capitals who were the voice of conscience, condemning Israel’s campaign of genocide against the Palestinians, calling on the international community to demonstrate double standards and demanding justice for the Palestinian people. It was ordinary people around the world who challenged the Israeli government’s dehumanization of the Palestinian people and rejected its demonization.
The lessons of World War II are still heeded by freedom-loving people who recognize that the dehumanization of a group of people is usually carried out with the aim of eradicating them, and that reaction against this type of genocidal language must be strong and ruthless.
There can be no more apathy in the face of the decimation of Palestinian men, women and children who are being bombed while they sleep in their beds. We hear the piercing cries of babies as they are trapped under the rubble of their buildings in a completely avoidable war crime. We know that the vast majority of those killed in the current military attack on Gaza are women and children.
The Palestinians are not children of a lesser God, and it is up to all of us to exert maximum pressure for an immediate ceasefire and arms embargo against Israel. Hostages must be released, humanitarian organizations must be given full access to Gaza, and those who have led this war must be held accountable for their war crimes.
We totally reject the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from their lands, and we will not stand idly by as all the red lines of war are crossed and the region descends into a zero-sum game of death and destruction.
Our common humanity requires that all human lives matter. It’s time to act.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.