The world has allowed Israel to break international law at will

Since a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Palestine at the beginning of the year, there has been little reprieve for the people of Gaza. If anything, over the past month or so, tensions have escalated as Israel continues to attack the people of Palestine, including medical personnel and journalists. This is not only a violation of the ceasefire agreement but also a clear defiance of international law regarding the rules that govern conflict.

The Geneva Conventions are clear that certain groups of people, including medical staff and journalists, should not be targeted during wars. But Israel continues to attack both these groups, with reports indicating that the number of journalists killed in this war supersedes those from the First and Second World Wars as well as the Vietnam War combined.

Donald Trump had offered some hope that he was capable of procuring a ceasefire even before he got into office, which put him into the good books of even those who had doubted him. However, the fact that Israel continues on its mission to destroy the Palestinian people with little to no push-back from the powers that be in the international community is proof that the rules are lax when it comes to Israel. Such leeway cannot be allowed Third World countries as sanctions would swiftly follow.

Most recently, it has been announced that all South Sudanese nationals in the United States have had their visas revoked due to the fact that the government of South Sudan rejected a plane carrying illegal South Sudanese immigrants back to their country. This in spite of the fact that most South Sudanese persons in the United States are war refugees, making the revocation of their visas a violation of international human rights on refugees. It would appear that the US President is more preoccupied with rooting out (illegal) immigrants than with following the law, and the continuance of the actions in Gaza further underscore this point.

The issue at hand, however, is not that all countries should be allowed room to break international law at will, but that the international community should be worried that Israel is provided special treatment in this matter. Why do the Western powers continue to look away one intifada after the next? This question can only be answered by examining the politics of the formation of Israel, as well as the geopolitics surrounding its placing in the Middle East.

Israel has been squarely placed as a monitor for the Western world, and it currently acts in lieu of occurrences such as those previously witnessed in Iraq, Iran and Syria. In the past, rash firing upon the Middle East resulted in apologies from the West as was the case with the United Kingdom apologising for invading Iraq for weapons of mass destruction that did not in fact exist.

Whilst the West protects its interests in order to preserve its interests in oil that does not mean that innocent Palestinians must die. Not too long ago, Trump posted an AI generated image of what the future of Palestine ought to look like, according to him and his sidekick, Elon Musk. This image showed to the world a reworked image of the Gaza Strip, with homes being replaced by casinos and fun adventures for the rich.

The international community must not forget that human lives are superior to the interests of the West. Palestinian lives matter, and their decimation should be equated to a genocide. As well, the destruction of Palestine should sound alarm bells for those of us who live in the Third World as what is happening to them could very quickly happen to us too. We cannot forget this, and should work tirelessly to ensure a permanent ceasefire to the current situation.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer