IT took two years for a United Nations Commission of Inquiry to find that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Two years in which how many innocents died while the wheels of international justice turned?
Those years were spent collecting and collating information, much of it sitting there right before the inquiry panel’s eyes, much of it straight from the mouths of senior politicians in the country responsible for the genocide. But much of it was spent battling massive and intimidating pressure not only from Israel and its sponsor, the United States, but from European countries which are part of the wider machinery of war that allowed and allows the genocide to continue.
The inquiry has spoken, the international community has spoken. And now is the time for the constituent members of that community to take the action which justice and humanity demand in the wake of this era-defining decision.
That action will not and cannot be taken by the UN. The United States has, since the violent formation of the Israeli state, used its pre-eminent position in the UN to frustrate and insult its partners in the New York assembly. There is not a word of criticism, not a finger moved in action, which will not draw both the ire and the veto of Washington. That is not to say that the inquiry decision is pointless, or that its work was not worth doing – far from it. Away from the straitjacket of the UN building, states have a huge range of sanctions and actions they can take to make it clear in no uncertain terms that this decision officially makes Israel the international pariah that many of us already knew it was, and to send a message that while the slaughter continues there can be no place for Israel in the community of nations.
That must immediately mean a South Africa-style expulsion of Israel from the sporting organisations and competitions which have been shamefully loath to banish the country with the speed and comprehensiveness with which they banished Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
That must mean that the cowardly refusal to act on the issuing of ICJ warrants against senior members of the Tel Aviv regime – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – ends now and that those named on the warrants will be made to know that they will be placed in handcuffs if they travel abroad, wherever that may be.
And finally and most importantly, punishing political and economic sanctions must be imposed on Israel, sending a powerful message that a country committing genocide cannot be treated as a normal member of the international community. The supply of weapons and military support, of course, must in the short term be the key aspect of political and economic moves against the genocidal state. And, yes, Germany, Britain and France, the world is looking at you in particular.
The Rubicon has been crossed. The world – and history – awaits the reply.
