Gaza: A Collective Crime

“The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation. It has exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest. The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met and justice is upheld.”

This is the framing statement of a new report (20th Oct 2025) by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories.

Francesca describes the current situation in black and white terms. Either this happens or that happens. Either international law collapses OR justice is upheld.

It is a pleasingly simple statement, but somehow it seems over dramatised. International law is not going to collapse – it is going to soldier on with its strengths and weaknesses – it’s strength being that is provides a framework for promoting peace, justice and human rights. Its weaknesses arising from the limitations of enforcement and the selectivity of its application.

In the case of Palestine, the US government has decided that it wishes to punish the Palestinian people for having the temerity to attack Israel, its Middle East proxy. It’s very expensive to have a Middle East proxy: it requires delivering Israel billions of dollars in support of military defence projects and funding for the general welfare of business and society. But the benefits are great: a military threat to the Middle East region that allows the U.S. to negotiate from a position of strength in order to create alliances and exploit resources while protecting trade routes – and all under the cover of having an accomplice (Israel) who takes the blame.

But the last two years of relentless attacks on Palestinians, a genocide, exposes the double standards of the white, western supremacist order that dominates global affairs. It threatens to impose a racialised, two-tier system where human rights are only enforced for some people and not for others.

This is unacceptable to most fair-minded people and underlines the importance of protesting what is happening to the Palestinians. The world must not accept that the apartheid in Israel is imported into the international system by granting Israeli and western leaders impunity for their crimes.

Jonathan Wonham (author of poetry books Ceasefire Now! and Dystopia Persecutia)