Gaza genocide – Western Complicity, Global South Solidarity

Stephen Kapos, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor from Budapest, believes there is no doubt that Israel is committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Israel has made clear it wants to “obliterate Gaza as a place to live at all” and is now in ‘the last stages of ethnic cleansing by means of genocide.’ Kapos adds that Israel and its supporters want to “conflate being Jewish with support for Israel and Zionism” but that is “a lie and complete untruth”.

The German state is also energetically incriminating itself as an accessory to genocide. In April Germany self-tarnished its democratic credentials following the international repercussions of the banning of the Palestine Congress slated to be held in Berlin from 12 to 14 April 2024.

German authorities’ even detained and subsequently expelled the rector of the University of Glasgow, Dr. Ghasam Abu Sitta, then banned the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, and debarred them from any political activity.

Germany has much work to do to erase these pro-fascist decisions. Notably on the Gaza war it has a lot of undoing to do before to reclaim its status as a nation that respects international law.

Germany’s democratic image was once deemed to have erased its Nazi past. It is re-enacting parts of its Nazi past along with an extreme right, through an all-party pact.

Germany has intensified its attacks on pro-Palestinian activists in the streets, institutions. Well-known Palestinian activists in Berlin whom it links, without evidence, to jihadist terrorism have been defamed in the media.

The lingering dilemma of widespread Islamophobia, a violent far-right which has already committed multiple murders and German public broadcasters bringing attention to activists with their full names, has created crisis levels of insecurity for those who peacefully seek justice for Palestine. And this, even after polls suggest that over 50% of Germans find Israel’s actions in Gaza disproportionate. All this has given the political Right Islamophobic ammunition to stoke the flames of fear from migrants who could be recruited as potential terrorists.

The Transnational Institute in The Hague has asserted that since the attacks of 7 October, the EU has expanded political cover and material support to Israel. This has continued through almost ten-plus months of unrelenting bombardment in which well over 40,000 people were killed, and 2.3 million people are displaced.

The world has witnessed aghast the fastest descent into starvation of an entire population ever recorded. The near-total destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure including homes, hospitals, schools and universities, places of worship and bakeries has aggravated the economy and life itself. Gazans have been traumatised and almost the entire population suffers anxiety, depression, and emotional ordeals.

Israel has shown utter disdain for international law and the United Nations after being placed on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and as the International Criminal Court (ICC). By extension it has assigned itself ‘pariah’ status. If the trials in the ICC go ahead, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence Minister Yoav Gallant will be first in line.

Were the European Union (EU) to have applied pressure in October by imposing sanctions, an arms embargo and prohibiting the transit of US military equipment through Europe, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza may have been curtailed and all the colossal deaths, and destruction avoided.

The EU failed its legal and moral duty to act and that puts all member states on notice of a plausible genocide. It has been fork-tongued throughout this crisis.

All these global political dynamics has impelled Israel to develop an insatiable craving for armament so it can assert its military superiority and power the region with an iron fist. Western governments have come under pressure to halt arms sales to Israel over how it is waging the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel is a major weapons exporter, but its military has been heavily reliant on imported aircraft, guided bombs and missiles to conduct what experts have described as one of the most intense and destructive aerial campaigns in recent history.

Campaign groups and some politicians among Israel's Western allies say arms exports should be suspended until Israel shows tangible evidence of its intent to protect the lives of civilians and ensure enough humanitarian aid reaches them.

When the United States and the United Kingdom issue futile calls for a ceasefire, those messages amount to nil because in the same breath they also affirm Israel’s right to defend itself. Arms are exported to Israel at lightning speed.

The US and UK mouth words that are mere eyewash and a pointless part of a ‘conscience cleansing’ project. If the EU and UK were to cease exporting arms and weapons and boycott Israel, an already ‘down-in-the-dumps’ war economy would make Israel feel embattled and prompt peace talks with Palestine as an equal partner.

The Global South is visibly asserting itself. A few more European nations have joined in by speaking up and challenging dubious claims. Anti-colonial and post-colonial politics have shaped global understandings of the Israel-Palestine conflict for decades, beyond the narrow vision of many Western countries.

Between May and June 2024, Spain, Ireland, Norway, and Slovenia announced that they would officially recognize the state of Palestine. Predictably, all these moves have received theatrical condemnation from Israel.

Just as predicted, the United States has consistently denied statehood for Palestinians through both its veto power in the United Nations Security Council and implicit and explicit support for Israel’s expansionist policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

By now more than 140 countries, had already recognized Palestinian statehood— not anything new because many had done so years ago. Countries in Asia and Africa have long seen the Palestinian quest for self-determination as an expansion of their own anti-colonial struggles of the twentieth century.

An examination of this history of solidarity can help us understand the ways in which anti-colonial and post-colonial politics have shaped global understandings of the Israel-Palestine conflict, beyond the narrow vision of many Western countries. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit had a large majority of countries’ support the UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the liberation of hostages when it met earlier this year. International resistance to the occupation has taken a strong foothold.

Nicaragua has taken an aggressive step by instituting proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany before the ICJ. Their core allegation: With its support for Israel, Germany is contributing to the genocide and other serious violations of international law against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Nicaragua’s application certainly raises not only legal but also sensitive political questions. It is payback time. Nicaragua’s institution of proceedings against Germany must be seen against the background of the historical relationship between Nicaragua under the Somoza government and Israel, and between the Sandinista Liberation Front and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), now referred to as the PLO.

During their insurrection against the Somoza regime, the Sandinista rebels were sustained from the PFLP. Nicaragua is not just bringing the case against Germany; it has also applied to intervene in the case brought by South Africa against Israel.

Nicaragua hopes to oblige Germany to resume its funding of UNRWA. The other purpose is to draw the world’s attention to the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza. Nicaragua echoes sentiments of the wider international community that Germany has continues to breach international law by refusing to prosecute, bring to trial and punish persons responsible for the genocide.

Israel’s reaction is archetypal. Israel’s strategy of trying to “conflate being Jewish with support for Israel and Zionism is politically immoral.” To link Jewishness with support for Israel is a sham. On the contrary it actually swells antisemitism worldwide.

It is manipulating the memory of the Holocaust as a cover to carry out the same atrocities in Gaza that the Nazis inflicted on the Jews in Europe. Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos adds: “Not only is there heavy arbitrary bombardment, but even blowing up important institutions like universities after they had been occupied, when there was no Hamas in the vicinity.

“Israel obviously desires to obliterate Gaza to depths that make it unliveable and to recover. The tragedy is that while Gaza may be in the last stages of ethnic cleansing by means of genocide, the rest of the world is hesitant to get militant through the boycott-divestment-sanctions regime.”

Israel has worked ceaselessly with the political tactic of planting divisions between political forces in Palestine; in the past 15 years. Israel keeps the Palestinian economy on the brink of collapse, suffocating economic activity and private business.

This has resulted in high unemployment rates and forced many Palestinians to work for the occupiers – sometimes even in illegal Jewish settlements literally built on their stolen land under humiliating circumstances. Restricted access to land and water resources has led to a dramatic reduction of Palestinian agricultural output, fundamentally disrupting traditional livelihoods.

In what is increasingly referred to as the “Killing fields of Gaza”, Israel accounts for 40,000 +Palestinians slaughtered, and, perhaps, 8,000 not counted. Their bodies are still under the rubble. The rest who have survived, have faced the deadly combination of Israel’s wrath.

Israeli occupation ensures Palestinians are deprived of the entry of food, water, and medicine to the Gaza Strip. Israeli air strikes have targeted every source of life. From water wells and water treatment plants to bakeries, farms, electricity generators, and solar panels, Israel has systematically targeted any means of relief for the people of Gaza.

In a hideous comment on the forced starvation of Gazans, the most cynical words of a spokeswoman were this: “ Without hunger and thirst among the Gazan population, we will not be able to recruit collaborators, we will not be able to recruit intelligence, we will not be able to bribe people, with food, drink, medicine, in order to obtain intelligence. To aid the process of “obtaining intelligence”, the Israeli occupation forces have regularly dropped leaflets from the sky, offering Palestinians food, medicine and safety in exchange for “cooperation”. That is political audacity.

When the world made a pledge not to let the horrors of the Holocaust ever repeat themselves – the slogan then was “never again” – it is highly paradoxical that Israel is repeating the same crisis now in Gaza. The solemn vow of “never again”, originated from the ashes of the Holocaust. It was geared to end the repetition of such horrors forever.

Yet, as we turn our gaze towards the ongoing Palestinian struggle, this pledge rings hollow. The shadows of past atrocities linger in the present-day experiences of the Palestinian people. Israel has fully internalised their learnings from the Nazis.

Israel has taken it on them to define who a Palestinian is. Israel instructs: You are Arab, Muslim, Christian, Druze or Circassian, but not Palestinian. This is ransacking the Palestinian social fabric altogether. This may be one of the ultimate goals of this war by Israel.

Ranjan Solomon is a writer and human rights activist. Views expressed here are the writer’s own.