Outrage at Gaza's destruction is no longer enough

LeMonde

4 days ago

Israel's relentless drive to destroy Gaza has not abated. The death toll is poised to soon surpass the staggering figure of 60,000, including thousands of children. Tens of thousands more Gazans, wounded and maimed, will carry the marks of indiscriminate bombings for the rest of their lives. An entire generation – whose stories this paper has honored by giving them a face, that of young Palestinian women and men killed by bombs in the Al-Baqa café – has known nothing of Israel but a merciless blockade and the disproportionate use of force by its army. Through this protracted siege, the Israeli military has forfeited what remained of its values.
The argument of the hostages fell apart when Israel unilaterally ended a ceasefire that had finally allowed dozens of Israelis captured on October 7, 2023, to regain their freedom. The pretext of eradicating Hamas has been stretched to its limit. With this endless war waged by Benjamin Netanyahu and his refusal to consider a "day after," compounded by violence from extremist settlers in the West Bank, the Islamist movement, though militarily weakened, continues to compensate ideologically for its losses on the battlefield.
To the unchecked violence inflicted on this territory strangled by Israel, one must add the scandalous Israeli-American manipulation of humanitarian aid, condemned by emergency response specialists across the board. The grossly insufficient and chaotic food distributions, which have often resulted in bloodshed, have led to famine and thirst, and even to deaths over mere scraps of bread.
This terrifying toll is no accident. It is the byproduct of Israel's project to reshape the Middle East, made possible by its military dominance guaranteed by the United States. The constant violations of international and humanitarian law and the normalization of war crimes stem from this. These are the new standards Netanyahu seeks to impose.
Countries appalled by this deliberate strategy and by the plan to make Gaza literally unlivable now face a stark choice. To be satisfied, as in the past, with empty admonishments is to demonstrate either a complete failure to grasp what is at stake in this narrow strip of land – namely, the threat of ethnic cleansing – or a minimal response dictated by weakness. The feeble European review of the association agreement with Israel has achieved nothing else.
Israel long ago exhausted the legitimate right to self-defense that was recognized after the horrific terrorist attack of October 7. Courage now demands a call to order expressed through actions equal to the current carnage. The means to be heard and taken seriously do exist: political, diplomatic, economic or cultural sanctions. Demonstrating such courage would at last break with the untenable double standard.
Such a departure from established practice is not easy. Many voices are already working to ensure that cowardice remains the rule. But the choice has never been clearer: to act, or to remain silent and look away.