Rafah on fire: Is the cult of the US and Israel above international law?
On Tuesday, a new round of negotiations were reportedly set to start for a ceasefire to facilitate the exchange of detainees in Gaza. The talks were set to happen after a shocking, blood-soaked overnight attack by Israel in Rafah, where burnt bodies, including those of children, could be seen being pulled out by rescuers. In all the previous attempts made to reach temporary truces and a limited exchange of hostages and prisoners, there was a feverish race between the chances of success and failure. Benjamin Netanyahu has always been winning, and the mediators have been continuing the attempts without success.
But the horror in Rafah has sparked global outrage, as it should. The truth of Israel's cruelty is coming out day after day. UN Chief Antonio Guterres is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the strike that Netanyahu terms a "tragic mistake." When will this tyrant, Netanyahu, pay reparations for his lies that have killed thousands and thousands of innocents? The new attempt at a ceasefire will not be the last, but its failure will open new gates to continue the war, bleeding, destruction and funerals—not only for the Palestinians, but for Israel as well. The future is bleak and frightening.
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On the optimistic side, the world is now slowly opening its eyes to the genocide in Gaza, coming to terms with the need for Israel's accountability, the need to recognise Palestinians' right to self-determination. All those who have unilaterally supported Israel are now shocked with the extent of its cruelty. After the strikes in Rafah, French President Emmannuel Macron said he was outraged. Germany, a staunch supporter of Israel, described the "images of charred bodies," as "unbearable."
Netanyahu and the US are becoming increasingly isolated. Prior to the Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, the US and Israel threatened anyone who attempted to end their megalomaniac killings of the Palestinians on Palestinian land.
Last week, for the first time in history, the International Criminal Court (ICC) received a request for arrest warrants against the prime minister and defence minister of Israel, the closest ally of the US—the champion of human rights. Three European countries—Ireland, Norway and Spain—announced formal recognition of Palestinian statehood in historic landmark decisions that are to take effect on May 28, and both Israeli and US politicians lashed out at the decisions like a pack of wolves.
The recognition of Palestinian statehood would serve to create more momentum in Europe, and in the short term, it can also lead to new levels of communications between the European countries and Palestinian leaders. These developments are, of course, minor as they cannot halt what's happening in Gaza, but they do still serve as small beacons of hope for the Palestinians who continue to face the most difficult national movement and fight for existence in modern history.
According to Haaretz, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Netanyahu to take punitive measures against every country that recognised Palestinian statehood, by building tens of thousands of settlements in the West Bank, and revoking permits of the Palestinian Authority officials and imposing economic sanctions on their families.
So, Netanyahu and his army of far-right thugs aim to "punish" the nation-states of Spain, Ireland and Norway, by accelerating its invasion of Rafah and confiscating wages for Palestinians, while Israeli soldiers throw the Holy Quran in fire in Gaza, as shown in a viral video recently.
Washington, a mouthpiece for Israel, also pushed back against the three European countries. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said President Joe Biden is a "strong supporter of a two-state solution," but argued that a Palestinian state should not be recognised "through unilateral recognition," and instead should be "realised through direct negotiations between the parties." Netanyahu has made it more than clear that he does not want a permanent ceasefire. He will prolong the war, fighting his decisive and final battle.
Joe Biden, who loves talking about the crisis in Gaza like it's some unfortunate earthquake and not a man-made disaster of his own backing, condemned the ICC arrest warrant request against his favourite war criminal Bibi, calling the decision "outrageous." He's now eerily silent after images of real beheaded children by Israeli airstrikes have come out. Where are his crocodile tears for the real beheaded children of Gaza?
Before this massacre in Rafah, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is directly complicit in this genocide—constantly appeasing Netanyahu—welcomed the idea put forth by Senator Lindsey Graham to sanction the ICC. Many other US lawmakers, like Republican Congressman Brian Mast, went on to delegitimise the court itself and openly threaten consequences, writing on X, "America doesn't recognize the International Criminal Court, but the court sure as hell will recognize what happens when you target our allies." The entitlement embodied in these statements cannot be overstated.
Washington and Israel's response can be summed up in one sentence: "To hell with international laws." The US and its ally, the apartheid regime of Israel, truly believe that they are above international law. There should be no question of that anymore.
The whole of Israeli society has now ingrained in it a bloodthirsty desire for war. As fire burnt Palestinians alive, Israelis celebrated the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer, where prominent figures and members of the Israeli public viewed the deadly fire in Rafah as a symbolic way to celebrate the bonfire.
Israelis mocked the shocking images from Rafah, including the one of a man holding up the body of a child with no head. A member of a popular right-wing Israeli Telegram group shared the photo, writing, "Fresh chicken 1 shekel a kilo." The barbarity has crossed all our worst nightmares.
A viral video of an Israeli soldier also shows that 100,000 reserve soldiers will not hand over Gaza to any Palestinian entity. The unnamed soldier threatened a military coup against Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, saying, "All those little kids who stepped on our soldiers' and brothers' heads when they stepped into Gaza, we will kill them. No one will be alive."
When these video accounts of the Israeli soldiers and their intentional targeting of civilians is so out in the open, Biden's incoherent babble of "two-state solution" no longer provides cover for the US support for genocide. The US knows, and knowingly backs, Israel's intention to kill the Palestinians and destroy Palestinian civilian structures—from villages to camps. We refuse to be fooled any longer by the masquerades of "democracy" and "human rights." The world's most outrageous coalition, the US and Israel, have shown their true faces. It is more fitting to call them gangsters than government officials.
More and more countries are starting to see that, and a day will come when they will not be able to hide anymore. There's a saying by former US President Abraham Lincoln, "You can fool…all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." The world will not be fooled. The world defeated Nazism. The world defeated apartheid. The world will defeat this cult, but the most painful question whirling in our minds is how many innocent Palestinian civilians—children—will get massacred before that day arrives.
Yousef SY Ramadan is the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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