Mastodawn

IV. Intersecting Components of the Gaza Genocide A. Genocide Under the Guise of Diplomatic and Political Actions

Prolonged political and diplomatic support by influential Third States has enabled Israel to initiate and sustain its assault on the Palestinian people. In the past two years, entrenched complicity, marked by narrative manipulations and reproduction of Israeli fabrications, have muted the urgent calls for action and obscured the web of political, financial and military interests at play. The longstanding failure to address egregious violations of international law by Israel – threatening international peace and security – has normalized and deepened relations with it, entrenching oppression, domination and erasure.

Following 7 October 2023, most Western leaders parroted Israeli narratives, disseminated by State and corporate media, repeating debunked claims and erasing core distinctions between combatants and civilians. Israelis were depicted as “civilians” and “hostages”, and Palestinians as “Hamas terrorists”, “legitimate” or “collateral” targets, “human shields” or lawfully detained “prisoners”. Drawing on a long history of the “savage” denied protections of international law, revived by the War on Terror discourse, Western States helped to justify the genocide against Palestinians. On 9 October 2023, immediately after Israel announced a tightened siege on Gaza, key Western leaders expressed support for the “self-defence” of Israel – unwarranted under article 51 of the UN Charter. President Biden repeatedly cited unsubstantiated reports of “beheaded babies”. British opposition Leader Keir Starmer defended Israel’s right to cut off water and power to civilians.

This environment fuelled a ferocious Israeli assault. Even amidst urgent calls for a ceasefire, Western states, led by the United States, advocated only for humanitarian “corridors”, “pauses” and “truces” – sidestepping a permanent ceasefire and ensuring a continuation of the violence. States reverted to treating the situation as a humanitarian crisis to be managed, rather than resolved, by demanding that Israel end its unlawful occupation once and for all, providing further leeway to the assault on Gaza.

Post-October 2023, the United States used its veto power in the UN Security Council seven times, controlling ceasefire negotiations and providing diplomatic cover for the Israeli genocide. The US has not acted alone. Abstentions, delays, watered-down draft resolutions and a simplistic rhetoric of “balance” reinforced the diplomatic protection and political narrative Israel required to continue the The United Kingdom maintained alignment with the US position until November 2024. A bloc of Western states – Australia, New Zealand and Canada, sometimes joined by the UK, Germany or the Netherlands – appeared at times ready to pressurize Israel, such as in December 2023, when their statements added momentum for a ceasefire. Yet their introduction of the term “sustained ceasefire” produced a diluted UNSC resolution that delayed action. In February 2024, they criticized the planned invasion of Rafah while simultaneously withdrawing United Nations Relief Words Agency (UNRWA) funding. Such diplomacy created an illusion of progress while concrete actions were repeatedly stymied.

Sanctions served a similar In 2024, Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand and the UK sanctioned some extremist settlers and organizations, and in June 2025, Israeli Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were sanctioned by Australia, Canada, Norway and the UK. Yet such isolated actions effectively condone the Israeli state system and structures as a whole.

Arab and Muslim states have long supported the Palestinian Three joint Arab- Islamic summits and several extraordinary meetings on Palestine, generated some collective efforts, including the Arab Plan. Nevertheless, these actions have not been decisive, even amid Israeli aggression against six Arab States, reflecting the complexity of regional geopolitics. Normalization through the US-brokered Abraham Accords has also shifted economic incentives. Open sources report that influential States in the region facilitated land routes to Israel, bypassing the Red Sea. While Qatar and Egypt sought to broker ceasefire agreements, Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region, and Egypt maintained significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing.

Certain non-Western States have turned to international courts to seek accountability and pressurize Israel to cease its actions. While only 13 States have supported South Africa before the ICJ, most Western States have persistently denied genocide. None have joined Nicaragua against Germany at the ICJ, or invoked domestic laws against complicit corporations or individuals. Only seven referred the situation to the ICC, many sought to undermine its arrest warrants, and at least 37 States were non-committal or critical, signalling intent to evade arrest obligations. The United States imposed sanctions to paralyse the Court; the United Kingdom threatened its funding, while Prime Minister Netanyahu travelled freely across European airspace, even visiting Hungary, which withdrew from the Court in April 2025.

Israel has been sheltered from accountability in courts as well as in global fora, with institutions preventing its deserved expulsion both from sports (e.g., Paris Olympics, FIFA World Cup qualifiers, FIBA, Davis Cup) and cultural events (Eurovision, Venice Biennale).

The ICJ’s groundbreaking ruling on the illegality of the occupation has yet to bring change. On 18 September 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution ES-10/24, reaffirming the binding nature of the Court’s legal obligations and formulating a roadmap to end the occupation by 17 September 2025 through diplomatic, economic and legal measures which states have yet to implement.

The Saudi–French Two-State Solution Conference of September 2025 led to ten new States recognizing the State of Palestine. While an important step, these tardy recognitions have so far remained symbolic, with no tangible effect in addressing the ongoing genocide. Overall, 20 new states have issued recognitions of the State of Palestine since October 2023, but with restrictive conditions (e.g., concerning governance, territorial integrity, political independence and demilitarization) incompatible with the very essence of self- determination, effectively reproducing forms of colonial tutelage.

Since October 2023, only Belize, Bolivia, Colombia and Nicaragua have suspended diplomatic relations with Israel, and only six States – Bahrain, Chad, Chile, Honduras, Jordan, Türkiye and South Africa – have downgraded their relations with Israel.

The most notable effort has come from the Hague Group initiative launched in January 2025. Led by Colombia and South Africa, 13 States of the Global Majority have committed to enforce six concrete measures against Israel. Twenty-one other States joined the third meeting of the Group in New York on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the General Assembly. Despite the efforts of some of its members, Israel still holds its UN credentials.

On 30 September 2025, many States, including Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the UAE, endorsed the “Trump Plan”, despite its silence on ending the occupation, ensuring accountability, providing transitional justice and its imposition of a temporary mechanism of imperial foreign governance for Gaza that further undermines, rather than realizes, Palestinian self-determination.

un.org/…/special-rapporteur-report-gaza-genocide-…

True romance, despite everything. - Sopuli