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As each day passes I read with horror reports about the latest IDF attacks on the civilian population of Gaza. These attacks are justified by the Western media and political classes by reciting the mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself from the terrorist group Hamas.
This racist narrative completely ignores the history of Palestine since 1948 which has been one of ethnic cleansing accompanied by massacre after massacre.
Since October 7 over 21,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel while over 1.75 million Gazans have been driven from their homes by the carpet bombing of the IDF. This contrasts sharply with the Nabka of 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and over 15,000 killed by Israeli forces.
Let us be clear: the ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide being carried out by Israel is happening with the connivance of Western governments who not only provide political cover for Israel to continue with its crimes but in the case of the US supply the IDF with essential weapons and ammunition.
As signatories to the UN Convention on Genocide and being permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, UK and France have a moral and legal obligation to take action against countries which have/are committing acts of genocide. In this case the UK and France along with the US have undermined international law by refusing to take action.
The UN Office On Genocide Prevention And The Responsibility To Act has stated:
“Importantly, the Convention establishes on State Parties the obligation to take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators, “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” (Article IV). That obligation, in addition to the prohibition not to commit genocide, have been considered as norms of international customary law and therefore, binding on all States, whether or not they have ratified the Genocide Convention.”
A large number of academics who specialize in the field of Holocaust/Genocide studies have come to the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza such as Raz Segal who is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University (in the US) and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide. On 13th October the Jewish Currents magazine published an article by Professor Segal titled: A Textbook Case of Genocide, Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening.
Professor Segal makes the following point in his article which Western politicians would do well to listen to:
“Israel’s campaign to displace Gazans—and potentially expel them altogether into Egypt—is yet another chapter in the Nakba, in which an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes during the 1948 war that led to the creation of the State of Israel. But the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes. I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians. I have written about settler colonialism and Jewish supremacy in Israel, the distortion of the Holocaust to boost the Israeli arms industry, the weaponization of antisemitism accusations to justify Israeli violence against Palestinians, and the racist regime of Israeli apartheid. Now, following Hamas’s attack on Saturday and the mass murder of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians, the worst of the worst is happening.’’
The next day on 15 October 2023, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies signed a public statement warning of the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Signatories include prominent Holocaust and genocide studies scholars, as well as many international law and TWAIL scholars.
In the conclusion to their statement they make the point that all nations have a legal responsibility to take action to protect the Palestinian population of Gaza. Since October 7 the UK, France and US governments have done nothing to protect the defenceless civilians of Gaza half of whom are children. Rather they have openly taken the side of Israel as it commits war crime after war crime.
The legal scholars make the following appeal to the international community:
“The undersigned urgently appeal to states to take concrete and meaningful steps to individually and collectively prevent genocidal acts, in line with their legal duty to prevent the crime of genocide. They must protect the Palestinian population, and ensure that Israel refrains from any further incitement to genocide and from the perpetration of conduct prohibited by Article II of the Genocide Convention.
All states should immediately act under Article VIII, and should call upon the competent organs of the United Nations, particularly the UN General Assembly, to take urgent action under the Charter of the United Nations appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide. We note specifically the role of the General Assembly here, given that the Security Council is compromised by the United States and the United Kingdom (both permanent veto-holding members) sending military forces to the eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel.
We recall that in 1982, the General Assembly condemnedthe massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps as “an act of genocide”. We note also that the state of Palestine is entitled to initiate, in accordance with Article IX of the Genocide Convention, proceedings before the International Court of Justice in order to prevent the perpetration of genocidal acts.
Finally, we call on all relevant UN bodies, including the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, as well as the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to immediately intervene, to carry out the necessary investigations and invoke the necessary warning procedures to protect the Palestinian population from genocide.’’
On 18 November South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters during a visit to Qatar on Wednesday evening that South Africa“put through a referral” to the International Criminal Court (ICC) “because we believe that war crimes are being committed” in Gaza. Further to this Al Jazeera on 15 November reported that:
“A group of lawyers representing Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that Israel’s actions amount to the crime of genocide.’’
“Gilles Devers, a veteran French lawyer and the victims’ representative before the ICC, submitted the complaint to the prosecutor as part of a four-person delegation in the Dutch city of The Hague on Monday.’’
“Governments must choose which camp they are on, if they support human rights or genocide. They cannot give speeches about international law and human rights and then accept Israel’s attack without doing nothing,” he said.
The last statement applies particularly to Western governments and their supporters.
As Israel resumes its daily attacks on the defenceless population of Gaza it seems clear that the West has no intention of upholding international law. Never again can they point the finger at Russia, China or any other nation and accuse them of human rights violations when they actively work to undermine international law by failing to uphold the UN Convention On Genocide.
The growing anger at the double standards of the West is undermining its diplomatic and geo-political position in many countries across the so called Global South. The actions of the West are serving to bring the Arab world back together after a decade of division sown by the aggressive actions American imperialism with its dirty war to overthrow the Assad government in Syria.
History will be harsh judge of those Western nations which have failed to prevent the unfolding genocide in Gaza and have actively worked to enable the daily slaughter of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the murderous ethnic cleansing ongoing in the West Bank.
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Dr. Leon Tressell is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: US Embassy in Jerusalem. Image: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs/ Flickr
