When Genocide and War Crimes became a Badge of Pride

Human history is filled with war crimes and genocide of different scales and shades. Experts on Genocide have a personal favourite in debates on what qualifies as a Genocide. Does one go by numbers, intent or maybe both. They seem quite oblivious to the detached cruelty in their statements on genocide for it goes far beyond the numbers game. The stark dehumanization in the approach has them present it as concepts used in association with any hunt. This attitude towards the victim clearly demonstrates the ground rule - anything is permissible as long as the goal of annihilation is upheld, and its justification is grounded in shades of grey enough to deflect any accountability.

No religion can today claim innocence from the violence that accompanies Holy Wars, Christianity, especially. Even though Christ spoke of love, peace and nonviolence, ardent Christians sought and embraced violence to assert their Faith. The only religion that may claim some limited innocence is Buddhism, though there be instances when followers resorted to violence in the name of Faith.

Religions created to mould people into better human beings had humans remould religion some while their founders were alive others after the demise. Religions devised for seeing beyond oneself and understanding the conflict in diversity had humans understand it as the unity in sameness: a unity in behaviour, expression, a distancing from differences and most of all of shunning any critical thought for their Faith had all the answers and forced imposition or extermination was justified.

It is this biased interpretation of religion that formed the pseudo justification for the creation of Israel. No religion or religious text can claim legal validity in worldly matters, yet it was only this that was used as the rational and moral base to occupy and then depopulate an existing State with its own governance system, culture, tradition, legal structure for that matter everything that goes to define a State.

Armed with the idea of Israel as a solution to the inhumane genocide of Jews carried out by the Nazis, planners, colonizers, dreamers chose different paths to achieve their dream. Ensuring the creation of a Jewish identity was central to the documents created after the Second World War for Global Governance. Nothing else can explain away the injustice in the concept of this Occupation being not seen as an inexcusable crime demanding immediate action.

The creation of that State was a legal sanction for the crime of depopulating of an area where a survey by the British showed there were more than 700,000 Palestinian as against 70,000 Jews largely ‘imported’ (that word indicates this project plan was a world decision created to access Power in the region and had nothing to do with the security of Jews).

This is the first instance when there was international cooperation to depopulate a State and create another. A part of those depopulated, were raped, killed to assert the power of newborn Israel and its Jews all of this being made possible by the unflinching support of Western nations. The payment of blood money for the victims was offset by continued Aid for building an armed Israel that could dominate Palestine.

For a crime committed by Nazi Germany vengeance was extracted from the innocents in Palestine. The Israeli who linked security to land ownership by armed take over and not humane considerations for a landless wandering tribe condemned to an unending exile by the very God in whose name they claimed territorial rights based on a dream that granted them that land of Palestinians.

For the first time Statehood was given to a country which had a nascent or absent governance system, no institutional support (as infrastructural or human resources) in place for governance, had a borrowed legal system in a skeletal form which is stated to be evolving and continues to do so through its Basic Laws which permeates all aspects of life including Civil Rights. This also means it has an unwritten constitution.

While countries like United Kingdom, New Zealand, or countries in the Gulf region do not have a written constitution, all these countries have either a specific religious text or a specific set of legal procedures already in place and is used to facilitate governance. Israel could make no such claim as its citizens were part of the legal systems of other countries.

While a state of flux may be useful in certain instances within the legal system it offers no solace to victims with no solid base for them to hold on to in seeking Justice. The narrative, created by the West, that Israel has a legal system is just and fair not been backed by examples to support the claim. Isn’t uniformity in the interpretation of law or a clear definition of its concepts part of ensuring Justice to all?

For the first time ever, before even any system of governance existed, this nascent country had a powerful military in place. An aggressive military aware of its enormous backing through military aid and that unquestioned rationale of our ‘raison d’etre’ – That’s the German and US take on the matter with future plans in the pipeline for the military industry.

A non-extant country was granted Statehood with full knowledge it was an illegal assertion of an aspiration to own another nation’s land through the most publicized concept of Greater Israel. There was no adherence to any law put in place to hold it accountable for State Crimes either directly or through its unquestioning supporters United States, United Kingdom & Germany.

In May 1948 for the first time an illegal entity declared itself a State with by lying in, that supposedly global platform for ensuring Just Governance in all nations, the United Nations without any question being raised there or any other platform concerned with legality in ensuring global Justice.

The self-evident discrepancies were covered up by with a twisted interpretation that got accepted with no clarification sought. That ‘Declaration of Independence’ was a lie by an aggressive occupier who was taking over another’s land by force something the US probably identified with. That lie stated among others: The state of Israel will be open for Jewish immigrants... will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture, it will safeguard the holy places of all religions; and will be faithful to the principles of the United Nations.

A declaration that was then held to be non-binding by the Israeli Supreme Court which in addition that clearly stated “concepts of Justice, Freedom and Peace as envisaged by the Prophets of Israel” will take precedence over everything that follows including the line “will be faithful to the Principles of UN”. A clear denunciation of even the terms of that Great Lie as ‘Declaration of Independence’.

While considering the continued manner in which Israel has shown impunity as to be its birthright, all attempts at reaching peace remain futile. Even the Oslo Accords led to the cementing of the injustice practised by Israel on Palestinian lands and not once did the issue get raised as criminal charges against Israel. Why?

At the same time any assertion by Palestinian as legitimate Civil Resistance to Occupation was silenced with a ton of bricks from all sides. These include biased narratives, normalisation of relationship with neighbouring Muslim countries, creating military association with those countries and interfering with domestic laws using that concept of anti-Semitism which is used at every instance to demonize the Palestinian population be it during meetings on international cooperation, the UN platform or an addressing the Press.

Here’s a listing of some of the realities that granted acceptance to the War Crimes or more rightly Genocide:

1. Making Israel the victim: From Oct 7^{th, 2023,} and till date after over 10 months of war crimes or plausible Genocide, the concept of presenting Israel as the victim continues even today within the Western media, despite the around 38,000 Palestinians killed by Israel. Never in human history has this happened, even Nazis were never made victims to justify their crime. Here no responsibility for crimes carried out, is laid on Israel. After the chaos it created in the Middle East through targeted assassinations when the demand was for Israel was to stop its genocidal attack on civilians. In some instances, civilians were made part of a live barbecue party for gleeful Israel and its supporters United States and Germany. Yet, all that United States President himself a declared Zionist sees is the security of Israel. The question is not just about injustice to Palestine, the question is also about total support for Genocide or War Crime being carried out Live for all to see. The open support by the US, that raises questions on the Veto rights enjoyed by the USA when directly responsible for continued slaughter of Palestinians. Besides which there is that ethical question on having the US represented in the Security Council when the US Supreme Court or American Constitution is considered second to the US Presidential Executive Order thereby having no counter check on misuse of Power by the President of the USA at the national or international level.

2. Building a Cocoon: Israel was cocooned from accusations of genocide and the genocidal intent strengthened for a while by western powers working across countries. They helped redefine concepts of Security, the Right to Self Defence even redefining the concept of a terrorist to include any civil resistance to the illegal occupation and control of sovereign rights as terrorist acts. Peace was equated to the silent acceptance of bondage to Israel. Palestinians were turned prisoners in their own lands for decades through entry- exit controls or full occupation, that ignored the Sovereign rights of Palestine. The formal establishment of the Palestinian State was stalled by US, UK and Germany through delay tactics at UN, under the cover of diplomacy, redefining the very concept of Justice and right to Sovereignty to please the illegal occupier, Israel.

3: Sustaining and maintaining the Cocoon: This is made possible by the autocracy of digital communication in governance. Earlier, media communications on any common issue were diverse, the audience varied, multiple platforms with limited reach, networking was limited. Participatory governance mechanisms functioned within innumerable groups- local, national, regional or global and news travelled from one segment to another at varied speeds and the diversity for the shades of grey that existed were acknowledged and strengthened at local, national, regional and global level.

Communication as a business, even when not for profit, helped sustain different policies that evolved while adhering to certain commonly held views.

With the shift to digital communication one or two perspectives took over all else, because of its speed, the dispersed reach and governance policies. These with the limited number of platforms available curtailed any chance for a specific post or news being identified as relevant by AI, the chances of any view in shades of grey surviving, the organized media propaganda onslaught turned limited or non-existent.

Now, a few handful the Corporate control the digital media communication networks or spaces, be it Meta, X, Tik Tok, LinkedIn or any other, turning those entities responsible for communication policies a handful easily controlled by legal dictates of the State. Global governance now depends on the whims and fancies of a few billionaires and their individual quirks. Democracy as Voices of the People no longer exists in that media, it is autocratic. Individuals who have no concept of communication dynamics except as a thorough grasp of monetary implications rule the world.

They are presented as a measure of models for a success that everyone else craves to imitate. Communication is no longer considered a medium of discourse and thought evolution. It is now but a space for the expression of Power and an assertion of the meaninglessness of billions of life forms against the billions at the command of a CEO. All of these Communication Houses have asserted the Rights of Israel even as it commits war crimes or plausible genocide.

4: The shadow of Grey to evade legal culpability:

It is the diplomatic cover by United States, United Kingdom and Germany that has systematically built a grey space for Israel to evade legal culpability for its actions going on way before October 7th October 2023. These violations never made front-line news, except when legitimate armed Palestine Resistance to Invasion and Occupation tried to inflict harm on its occupier that tortured the Palestinian population in more ways than one.

How the shadow of the Grey offers cover to legal culpability, has been clearly illustrated by Israel on many occasions, to indicate the same am giving two examples. a) In the Nuseirat Refugee camp onslaught to save a few hostages, the soldiers on the ground had intelligence report insights on where some of the Israeli hostages were and planned the attack.

The United States does acknowledge that they provided intelligence and though not stated by them the events on that day and eyewitness accounts indicate that the Sea pier provided the cover and provision of humanitarian aid came in very handy.

What is interesting is the manner in which Western media, the national media in India or World News Services shared accounts on the inhuman assault. Their focus was to highlight the investigative and intelligence capabilities of Israel. Narratives further focused on a smooth flow of events that erupted into chaos for gunfire with or by Hamas.

But Live videos, show Palestinians describing how vehicles disguised as carrying furniture for evacuation suddenly opened fire on innocents. The surprise element created for that crowded location was to slaughter innocent civilians by randomly firing into crowds and to escape with the hostages in the confusion and chaos created.

b) The second instance can be seen as the recent targeted killings of members of Hamas and killing of Hezbollah military chief in Lebanon, while the Genocidal Prime Minister of Israel has stated often he will eliminate all the top leaders of Hamas, the killing of main negotiator for Hamas indicates Israel wants to continue its wars, its occupation and most of all kill Two State Solution and opt for a Greater Israel with Palestinians as second class citizens.

This spurt of killings also had another important advantage the rape of a Palestinian detainee by 9 Israeli soldiers no longer made it into the front page news. When the instance of rape torture led to a Palestinian detainee needing medical attention the world media could no longer ignore the incident, but its narration was way different from truth ‘rape was described as abuse’. It is interesting to note that verbal taunts targeting Jews are considered criminal in some Western countries. The same media that downgraded the forceful insertion of an iron rod into the rectum of a Palestinian detainee as abuse, earlier went to great lengths to show how hostages were traumatised by Hamas through words and touch. Those Israeli hostages who indicated that they were not physically harmed by Hamas were insulted and trolled by Israeli society. All of which indicate a strong desire not for truth, but to portray Hamas as evil fiends and Israelis as the moral army. Since, morality is subjective it is possible Israel has a different definition for morality.

5: When Justice depends on Criminals and Criminal entities

Whenever a war crime of Israel is reported it is stated that Israel will investigate, and United States expresses faith in Israel’s investigation. Why should investigation by Israel be trusted? Events in the past do not indicate any scope for Israel to be trusted. Investigations by Israel have either been delayed in-definitively or at the maximum culprits have been suspended. How Israel plays with public image and narration can be seen when considering assassination of Hamas Political Chief Ismail Haniyeh, for according to news report the assassination was planned and readied for months. The statement of Israel’s Army Chief Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari a month ago, that he agreed it would be difficult to eradicate Hamas as an ideology by killing its members was then a lie, for Israel was then but waiting for the best opportunity to assassinate the Hamas spokesperson.

Molly Charles