Israel has become a liability for the West and its universal values

OSAMA AL SHARIF Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.

Israel’s appearance at The Hague last Thursday to defend itself against South Africa’s charge of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip marked the most significant legal and diplomatic challenge facing the Jewish state since its inception more than seven decades ago. In a public hearing, South Africa’s legal team presented a solid legal document that outlined Israel’s breach of the Genocide Convention in its three-month-old war on Gaza. More importantly, the plaintiff debunked Israel’s claim that its actions in Gaza were justified as self-defense in retaliation for the events of October 7, which South Africa had condemned. And finally, using the hateful rhetoric of senior Israeli officials, South Africa proved intent.

By the admission of international and several Israeli experts, Israel’s attempt to debunk the charges against it was weak and unconvincing, considering the horrendous crimes its military had committed so far in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
But Israel was not the only party on trial that day. Western governments that had backed and justified Israeli actions with no regard to documented breaches of international law were also present in the defendant’s corner, at least in spirit. Israel could not have carried out its genocidal war without the direct military and diplomatic backing of Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa, Berlin, and the EU. These Western governments and bodies enabled Israel, both politically and physically, to carry out one of the most atrocious onslaughts on a civilian population since World War II.
Making things worse, these governments ignored the genocidal statements uttered on an almost daily basis by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and top Israeli officials. They raced to deny charges that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians, destroying hospitals, universities, schools, mosques, and churches, and applying a scorched earth policy in Gaza.

Washington and its allies rejected calls for a ceasefire, knowing fully that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza, denying access to aid, bombing hospitals, and killing thousands of women and children. Despite the enormity of killings and scale of destruction, these governments shunned away from criticizing, not to mention denouncing, Israeli atrocities.

Even when millions around the world saw videos of horrific and unimaginable Israeli war crimes against hapless Palestinian civilians, including the rounding up of displaced men and children, parading them half naked in the streets of Gaza, and then moving them to undisclosed locations, Western officials continued to justify Israeli actions. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the genocide charges as “meritless,” while his British opposite, Lord David Cameron, said that the South African case against Israel was “unhelpful”. Germany stepped in to defend Israel at The Hague. This was happening even when millions in the West marched in support of Palestine while denouncing their governments’ complicity in the Gaza carnage.
While the world awaits the International Court of Justice (ICJ) response to a provisional ruling, as requested by South Africa, to stop the war until a final and binding verdict is reached, Netanyahu remains defiant, attacking the ICJ, South Africa and any party that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
A ruling on this case will test the integrity of the ICJ and the credibility of the rules-based world order. The challenge for the judges is unprecedented. The defendant is Israel, the West’s closest ally and one that has incredible political sway in the most influential capitals. The case is highly politicized. If Israel is convicted of genocide, the case could then move to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where warrants for individuals directly or indirectly involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity will be issued.
If the court rejects the charges, what does that mean for international law and conventions? What would be the message the court would be sending to the rest of the world? And what would that mean for more than 30,000 killed and missing, more than 60,000 injured, and more than 1.8 million displaced with no home to go back to?

This case is a watershed for the world as we know it and the future of international laws and conventions. And why; because the West, led by the United States, has for decades allowed Israel to be above the law and enabled it to carry out its crimes against the Palestinians with impunity. This policy would have continued if Israel had chosen a low-intensity response to Hamas’ 7 October attack. But Netanyahu and his Far Right coalition, as well as a humiliated Israeli army, decided to decimate Gaza instead. This time, the crime was too big to cover up.
The reality is that Israel has long become a liability for the West, in particular the United States, which had crowned itself as the world’s sole superpower and the defender of democracy and universal values since the 1990s. And while it took it upon itself to unilaterally dictate an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israel/Palestine Question, it looked the other way as Israel drifted to the far right under Netanyahu, destroying the two-state solution as it expanded illegal settlements, blockaded Gaza while appeasing Hamas at the expense of a weak and dysfunctional Palestinian Authority (PA), arming and supporting extremist Jewish settlers and carving up the West Bank.
Even before Israel launched its war on Gaza, its army and settlers had been attacking Palestinians in the West Bank daily, killing hundreds and arresting thousands. Washington and its allies ignored Israeli actions even though each extrajudicial killing, each attack by the settlers, and each demolition of homes is a breach of international law and the Geneva Conventions. Israeli war crimes, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, have been going on for decades. Western governments, using empty rhetoric, became apologists, then enablers, and finally accessories to Israel’s crimes.
The West must make a choice, a hard but necessary one, in the wake of the unforgiving Gaza genocide. It can continue its collusion with the likes of Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and Smotrich in the biggest crime against humanity this century, or it can tell Israel that it must become a normal state, one that abides by international laws and conventions, end its occupation, allow the Palestinians to have self-determination and pay for its crimes. Otherwise, Israel will become a pariah state subject to global sanctions and liability. Allowing Israel’s impunity for so long has damaged the West’s credibility and is threatening the world order, which is not at a tipping point. Israel’s exceptionalism must end, and it is up to the West to carry out that mission.
One other defendant on trial at The Hague is the Western mainstream media (MSM), which has failed terribly at its responsibility to cover the truth impartially and objectively. Social media has beaten the likes of BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Times of London, and others in their own game. By ignoring the horrific reality in Gaza and by subscribing to Zionist propaganda in an attempt to mislead the public, they have done irreparable damage to themselves. They, too, stand as complicit in covering up war crimes and the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza. They stand discredited forever.
Courtesy form Jordan TImes

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