Double standards and monumental hypocrisy in full and unequivocal public view – without apparent embarrassment, shame or remorse for its consequences. A deliberate strategy to turn black into white, injustice into ‘justice’, mass killing into ‘defence’ and barbarism into ‘civilisation’.
Truly sickening and amounting to a total assault on everything associated with common decency and basic humanity.
The image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receiving a standing ovation in the US Congress chamber with members jostling each other to shake his hand could not be more disturbing or disgusting. This standing ovation for an individual who is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant request alongside his minister for defence and three senior Hamas officials.
Just for a moment, imagine if you will, that Hamas ‘leaders’ (ICC co-accused of war crimes) Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al ’Masr and Ismail Haniyeh (who was assassinated on Wednesday) were to be similarly and officially celebrated internationally; we would be rightly enraged and disgusted.
With his predictable and routine disregard for law and for anything approaching morality, Netanyahu dismissed the ICC and its charges, attacking its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan as being one of the “great antisemites in modern times”. US President Joe Biden called the charges “outrageous”, insisting there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reflecting long-standing US hostility to the ICC, claimed that the court had no jurisdiction in the case, a position the US easily abandoned in the ICC’s case against Vladimir Putin. Different villains, different rules.
When Russia bombed a children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8, it was rightly condemned as a brutal atrocity, including by the White House. In stark contrast, there was no equivalent condemnation for the brutality of Israeli strikes on or near schools and shelters in Gaza City, locations where people had been forced to take refuge.
Such selective outrage and condemnation are hugely problematic in terms of respect for international law, for political and diplomatic credibility and for international perspectives of the ‘duplicity’ of the ‘West’, especially in the context of the Middle East and Palestine in particular.
The image of Benjamin Netanyahu receiving a standing ovation in the US Congress could not be more disgusting- Colm Regan
The US and many of its allies routinely express concern at the reckless ‘herding’ of Gazans into and from different areas of their own land, urging due care for civilians and expressing dismay at the inevitable human impact. Yet, they resolutely refuse to end the ongoing supply of weapons to Israel.
There are no such qualms about calling for an end to the supply of weapons to Russia by North Korea and Iran while threatening China of consequences if it were to do so.
Almost 10 months on from the atrocities committed in Israel by Hamas on October 7, the unspeakable suffering inflicted on Gazans continues relentlessly. Gaza City is now experiencing some of the fiercest airstrikes of the war to date, resulting in human carnage and an almost totally destroyed land. Best guess estimates (independent verification is prevented by Israel) puts the current death toll between 38,000 and 40,000 while injuries are estimated to top 80,000.
In recent weeks, the UN Food Programme has painted a stark picture of ongoing hunger, with evidence of malnutrition and a high risk of famine.
This is indeed ‘a clash between barbarism and civilisation’ but not one as framed by Netanyahu and many of his cabinet colleagues.
We have now reached the point where, in the obscene mathematics of war, it is obvious that some lives (and deaths) are considered more important than others. For many years now, Palestinians have been deemed a group who can be attacked and killed without significant consequence. Their land, resources and infrastructure can be degraded or stolen at will. So, too, their human rights.
In separating out the distinctions between barbarism and civilisation, one key metric is the value placed on the sanctity of human dignity and human life. Yet another metric is that of respect for and adherence to the rule of law. On both counts (and many others), events in Gaza (and elsewhere in Palestine and Israel) simply add to the scales of barbarism.
The consequences of our collective hypocrisy on Gaza, Palestine and Israel are now coming into clear view as Netanyahu and his fellow war mongers seek to expand the conflict regionally, mirroring the agenda of Israel’s enemies. Diplomats scramble to mediate but the arms continue to flow.
Our duplicity, hypocrisy and doublespeak threaten not just the present (theirs and ours) but chillingly the future. What is now being done to Gazans and Palestinians (and, to a lesser extent, Israelis and Lebanese) will not be readily forgotten or forgiven.
Offering standing ovations to war mongers, whether from Hamas, Hezbollah or Israel, cannot in any way be equated with ‘civilisation’, quite the contrary.
Colm Regan is human rights teacher and activist.