No doubt, Palestinians have suffered hugely due to Israeli brutalities but the latest Palestinian-Israeli conflict has exposed the double-standards of the West in general and the United States in particular with regard to application of international law, upholding of human rights and use of sanctions as a tool in similar circumstances. It is the height of hypocrisy that the United States and some Western countries moved swiftly in a bid to penalize the Russian Federation for its war against Ukraine but the same countries adopted quite a different approach to worst kind of killings in Gaza and sufferings of its 13 million besieged population.
Russia has its own perspective on the war saying its security concerns were not given due consideration by NATO but the United States and other Western countries accuse it of unprovoked invasion against Ukraine. They argue that Russia’s war in Ukraine is violating the rules-based international order and poses a significant threat to European security but they have closed their eyes to the threat posed to the rules based international order by Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The EU and NATO have responded by taking coordinated action against Russia and in support and solidarity of Ukraine. The measures taken have varied from unprecedented sanctions on Russia to assisting Ukraine with the delivery of arms and ammunition. The West is providing diplomatic, military and economic support to Ukraine and uses diplomatic tools at its disposal to penalize Russia. The quantum of aid can be judged by the fact that the United States alone has pledged about $45 billion in arms and military aid to Ukraine. The United States is also pressurizing different countries to force them to toe the Western line on the issue of Russia-Ukraine war and entities and individuals in some countries have been sanctioned for their alleged linkages with and supplies to the Russian Federation.
As against this, the United States is siding with a country that is viewed as blatant violator of the international law, mockery of the UN system and trampling of human rights of Palestinians. The US even vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution which sought not a ceasefire but just humanitarian pauses in Israel’s bombing for medicine and other essential life supporting supplies to enter Gaza . President Joe Biden, who has a long history of supporting Israeli crimes, responded to the latest massacre by insisting on Israel’s “right to defend itself” but he was not ready to acknowledge the right of Palestinians to defend themselves.
The United States is accusing Palestinians of ‘provocation’ but it saw no provocation when thousands of Palestinians were killed and many more rendered disabled for life by thousands of Israeli attacks during the last 75 years; denial of national aspirations and human rights to Palestinians; storming of Al-Aqsa mosque compound by Israeli settlers two days ahead of Hamas action; establishment of illegal settlements in violation of UN resolutions and killing of 248 Palestinians by Israeli forces or settlers between January and October 04.
The United States is supporting a country that is not ready to consider Palestinians as human beings. Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant boastfully said “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”. Attacks by Hamas were limited but Israel since then is targeting indiscriminately the entire population, razing entire infrastructure of Gaza to ground, which amounted to collective punishment, which is not tacitly but openly approved by the United States. US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak instead of expressing sympathy with victims of aggression had the audacity to visit Tel Aviv to express solidarity with the butcher, injuring feelings of just-minded people around the world.
There is now greater realization among human rights organizations and advocates of a just international order that the United States is a partner in crimes of Israel. As the United States vetoed the UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, Doctors Without Borders reacted to the unashamed misuse of veto power by Washington pointing out the US stands alone in casting its vote against humanity. By continuing to provide diplomatic cover for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, the US is signaling that international humanitarian law can be applied selectively — and that the lives of some people matter less than the lives of others. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said that the US veto “displays a callous disregard for civilian suffering in the face of a staggering death toll”. In a statement it also said that Washington “has brazenly wielded and weaponized its veto to strong-arm the UN Security Council, further undermining its credibility and ability to live up to its mandate to maintain international peace and security”. Human Rights Watch released a statement saying: “By continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the US risks complicity in war crimes.”
The United States and some Western countries are so brazenly aligned with the Jewish state that they are not allowing individuals to express solidarity with Palestinians despite their claims about respect for freedom of speech. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were banned in several European countries, students were expelled from educational institutions and workers fired from service for expressing solidarity for oppressed Palestinians or anti-Jews remarks on X, formerly Twitter. This is in sharp contrast to encouragement and sponsorship of demonstrations against Russian invasion of Ukraine. Political, media and educational institutions in the West regularly sideline and silence Palestinians and their supporters. In Canada, a statement by progressive Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow painted a rally in support of Palestinians as allegedly supporting violence and as a threat to the safety and security of Canadian Jews.
Apart from expressing support for Israel’s right to defend, the US and some other countries also display double standards when it comes to killing of civilians in Israel, which spark strong reaction in Western capitals but they keep mum over daily carnage of civilians in Gaza. There was no western outrage when Israel ordered more than a million Palestinians to leave their homes in 24 hours.
Russians are threatened to be charged with war crimes and the International Criminal Court started investigation of alleged crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine within days but there is no move to take a similar action against the Jewish state.
The double standards adopted by the United States and some other countries on these two conflicts have sent a loud and clear message to the international community that the existing international order is synonymous to ‘might is right’ and needs to be replaced with a just order.
