The World Order Dominated By The West Will End In Gaza

The world order dominated by the West will end in Gaza, as it has destroyed its credibility and advanced the “rules-based” global order it claims to be leading to irreversible damage by endorsing Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice, alleging Israel breached the Genocide Convention, will be remembered for all time, regardless of how it ends. It will either be regarded as the ultimate, fatal gasp of a broken, Western-led international system, or as the first move toward at last holding a rogue state responsible for persistent, long-running breaches of international law.

The West’s Hypocrisy on Human Rights

The so-called “rules-based world order” that Western governments (and the political elite in general) claim to be leading has finally reached a breaking point due to their hypocrisy. The West’s unwavering backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has brought to light the region’s hypocrisy towards international law and human rights. There’s no going back, and the only thing the West can blame is its arrogant behavior.

For everyone with a smartphone, the long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel committed in Gaza is as evident as day. Videos of hospitals and schools being bombarded, fathers removing their children’s lifeless bodies from under demolished buildings, and mothers sobbing over their babies’ corpses are a constant feature on social media feeds. Despite this, Western governments have responded by trying to outlaw any display of solidarity with the Palestinian people and classifying any criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic, in addition to providing almost unrestricted military and political backing.

Tens of thousands of people continue to demonstrate their resentment at Israeli brutality and Western participation on the streets every day despite this oppression. Western nations, the US included, have started to criticize Israeli assaults on a minor basis recently, desperate to restore some sort of legitimacy. It’s too little, too late, though. The credibility of the West has been permanently destroyed.

Undoubtedly, hypocrisy in the West is nothing new. Western administrations claim that while the world should be alarmed by Russian aggression, it should also be completely content with Israeli brutality and disobedience of international law. While Palestinians and other people who dare to speak out against Israeli apartheid are considered terrorists, Ukrainians who stand their ground against Russian occupation forces are heroes and liberation warriors. While black and brown-skinned refugees from crises in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa—of which the West is mostly behind—can plunge to the bottom of the Mediterranean, white-skinned refugees from Ukraine are more than welcome. Rules are for you, not for me has been the true attitude of the West.

The same insincerity can be seen in the way the West views China. Armed to the teeth, China is surrounded by American and foreign military installations. However, China is accountable for what? With no specific transgression to point to, Western governments and media can only charge China with “increased assertiveness,” that is, with being unaware of its designated submissive position within the Western hegemonic order.

Global justice has transformed into an awful joke. Should the International Criminal Court (ICC) be operating efficiently, Israeli officials would be put on trial right now, and South Africa wouldn’t have needed to file an appeal with the ICJ. However, as things stand, the ICC indicted only Africans until 2022, when, little than a week later, it declared that it was looking into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Without a doubt, hypocrisy in the West is nothing new. International legal rules were designed to be exclusive to so-called “civilized” peoples, which is to say, white people. Savages were uncountable, and the strong Western states were free to treat them whatever they liked. Land and natural resources were definitely not “owned” by Native Americans, and colonial forces were free to take and use them any way they pleased. Such racist beliefs also served as the foundation for Zionism and continue to guide Israeli policy today.

Right To Self-Determination

The right to self-determination, which is every person’s fundamental right to select their political structure and manage their own natural resources, is clearly subject to these unfair disparities. President Woodrow Wilson of the United States advocated that self-determination serve as the cornerstone of the post-World War I international order, but only for Europeans. Arab populations, like the Palestinians, discovered colonialism was still in place the hard way when they were forced to live under League of Nations mandates that justified colonial rule for “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves.” Similarly to the League of Nations’ Mandates, the United Nations Charter also had provisions for trusteeship.

This came to an end with the African and Asian independence wars. They successfully demanded newly independent nations that everyone had the right to self-determination. The international accords on human rights clearly state that the right to self-determination belongs to all peoples and that any other human right can only have significance if political and economic self-determination is achieved.

To the dismay of Western nations, the debate over the right to self-determination continued. The right of armed struggle against colonial authority, including that of the Palestinian people, has been repeatedly declared by the UN General Assembly. Additionally, the Geneva Conventions Protocol on the Laws of War declared that resistance to racist and colonial regimes is legitimate. There is no doubt that international law has progressed correctly.

The mechanisms for putting international law into practice are still inadequate. This is intentional because it gives strong nations, like the US and Israel, the ability to act without consequence and to protect their proxies. Without any enforcement, Israel can (and presumably will) choose to defy the International Court of Justice’s rulings to stop its atrocities, even if it finds Israel guilty of genocide years later and imposes a temporary injunction to stop. Any pretense of justice would crumble, and the current global system would undoubtedly come to an end.

The UN Bias Towards the Global South

The UN Security Council is responsible for enforcing international law, but it has often shown itself unable to carry out its mandate due to its veto rights for the five permanent Security Council nations. The General Assembly has no authority to enforce laws. Furthermore, the majority of international organizations, like the UN, ICC, and others, rely mostly on voluntary donations from governments due to their chronic underfunding. This leaves them open to excessive influence from the powerful and wealthy, or more specifically, the wealthy Western nations.

These worldwide organizations are not represented at a deeper level. Only governments have a say in the decision-making process, even though civil society organizations can contribute to most discussions. However, as the Gaza situation demonstrates, even the governments of purported democracies may not always reflect the wishes of their constituents.

Human rights violators must be held accountable, especially Western politicians who participate in genocide. Israeli aggression and colonization must end. Still, we can’t end there. Demanding a radical overhaul of international organizations is imperative. They need to become genuinely equitable and democratic. Instead of governments that are all too frequently in the pockets of wealthy and powerful interests, they should represent the voice of the people through civil society organizations and other democratic forms of representation.

It will not be simple to establish a global order that guarantees everyone’s equality and fairness. It will take persistent efforts on the part of the world’s citizens to compel governments and international organizations to change their behavior.

Click here to read more about Israel’s apartheid regime.

Click here to read about UN’s charter on genocide prevention.