By: Rameez Bhat
The eruption of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the war in Gaza was an inevitable crisis, fuelled by Israel’s harsh occupation of Palestine spanning seven decades. Israel’s relentless hostility towards Palestinians included escalating aggression, settler violence, human rights abuses, desecration of Muslim holy sites, and a severe form of apartheid.
Palestinians faced forced displacement, loss of land, and enduring repression, including arbitrary arrests and collective punishment. Entire neighborhoods were demolished, and people were uprooted to facilitate illegal Israeli settlements, causing immense suffering to a dispossessed population. In Gaza, with over two million inhabitants, a 16-year Israeli-imposed blockade and harsh restrictions created a challenging existence, turning the territory into what is described as the world’s largest open-air prison.
Given the historical injustice, the eruption of the conflict was unsurprising when, on October 7, Hamas initiated a military assault on Israel. Israel’s retaliatory actions, marked by a severe siege on Gaza and indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, refugee camps, and schools, amounted to war crimes. The consequences were devastating, with over 2,200 Palestinian lives lost, including 700 children, and nearly half a million people displaced. The UN human rights chief and the EU’s top diplomat both labeled Israel’s siege as a violation of international humanitarian law. Israel’s cutoff of essential supplies and the forced evacuation of 1.1 million people from northern Gaza have led to a humanitarian catastrophe, prompting a warning from the UN about calamitous consequences.
As this tragic situation unfolded, the international response was minimal. Western nations, indifferent to the plight of the Palestinians, unequivocally supported Israel’s right to self-defense. The US, being Israel’s primary supporter, not only pledged additional military assistance to Tel Aviv but also deployed an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean, supplying advanced weaponry. Despite the importance of condemning civilian casualties on both sides, Western governments remained silent on Palestinian losses, expressing outrage exclusively at Israeli fatalities.
While Israeli airstrikes persisted, causing widespread destruction, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people. The OIC asserted that the ongoing occupation was the root cause of instability. However, the 57-member organization of Muslim states refrained from taking collective action. Additionally, Arab countries, which had established diplomatic ties with Israel in recent years, were not urged to suspend these connections. In reality, their normalization policy towards Israel empowered Tel Aviv to act with impunity in its Gaza campaign. An emergency Arab League meeting demanded an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza but took no further action.
Once again, the UN Security Council failed in fulfilling its primary duty for maintaining international peace and security. In an emergency closed session on October 8, discussions reached a deadlock, preventing the issuance of any statement. Western countries reportedly sought only a strong condemnation of Hamas, showing no inclination to call for de-escalation.
The Russian representative’s efforts to prompt a ceasefire and meaningful negotiations were unsuccessful, and a second Security Council meeting on October 13 witnessed sharp disagreements. Despite Russia proposing a humanitarian ceasefire and a resolution emphasizing the protection of civilians, the P3 countries—US, UK, and France—showed no support. With no scheduled vote, the likelihood of action on this matter is low, leaving the Security Council neglectful of its responsibility to halt the violence.
This is not the first instance where the UN body has been unable to address a long-standing issue. Numerous resolutions from the UNSC and General Assembly have called for resolving the Palestine question and ending the illegal Israeli occupation, with at least 88 Security Council resolutions dedicated to the issue.
The resolution to the oldest conflict on the UN agenda, according to numerous resolutions, is a two-state solution ensuring a viable, independent, and contiguous State of Palestine. However, Israel, spurred by robust Western support, particularly from former US President Donald Trump’s policies, opted to abandon the two-state approach. Instead, it pursued a one-state solution, expanding illegal settlements in violation of Security Council resolutions and defying international calls to cease such activities.
The failure to act on these resolutions is a condemnation of influential global members who possess the power to instigate change but are unwilling due to a steadfast commitment to Israel, contrary to their professed respect for international law. UN Secretary-General AntónioGuterres emphasized that the recent surge in violence is not isolated but stems from a 56-year-long conflict with no end in sight. He urged an end to the bloodshed, stressing that only a negotiated peace aligned with the long-held vision of a two-state solution, in accordance with UN resolutions, can bring lasting stability to the region. Guterres also called on Israel to reconsider its evacuation order.
Regrettably, these pleas went unheeded in Israel, where plans for a ground invasion and reoccupation of Gaza introduce uncertainty to the crisis with a risk of regionalization of the war. It is evident that regional normalization efforts, particularly between Saudi Arabia and Israel, are currently stalled. The enduring lesson from the past decades is clear: no level of firepower or repression can break the will of an occupied people to resist.
