Gaza... The Shame of the World

Author: رامي مهداوي

It is no longer possible to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip today except as a major tragedy in the history of the world, as the Irish president stated. The famine declared by the United Nations is not an emergency event, but a direct consequence of war crimes committed in plain sight, while the discourse on human rights and sustainable development meets a horrific downfall.

The gravity of what is happening is not confined to the humanitarian disaster experienced solely by the Palestinians, but extends to the entire international system. When an entire population is starved and subjected to deprivation, the message that reaches the world is that international law has become worthless. Any infringement on international law reflects on global security in all its dimensions; economically, socially, and politically.

It is enough to remember how the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war spread to rising grain and energy prices and burdened the budgets of many countries. Today, the tragedy of Gaza carries even greater dangers, as it ignites a hotbed of tension in the heart of the Middle East, given its strategic and economic importance to the world. The famine there is not just a Palestinian suffering, but a bouncing bomb threatening the stability of all.

The United Nations' announcement of Gaza entering a stage of famine raises a serious question: What has this organization done to prevent it? Its role is not to be a news agency, but a safety valve for the protection of security and international law. What credibility remains for the Security Council while it watches the children of Gaza die of hunger and women and elderly collapse under sickness and deprivation, while persons with disabilities are left to their fate? Is it enough to issue a press release while images of emaciated children have filled screens for weeks?
Gaza has revealed the impotence of global conscience. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a comprehensive war: bombing, starvation, and displacement, in a clear project to eliminate everything living in the sector. The result is that the world stands idle, content to repeat phrases of concern, while the crime goes unpunished.

It is true that the wave of recognitions of the Palestinian state – which reached 147 countries – represents an important symbolic signal, but it remains far less than the scale of the tragedy. It is closer to lifting the guilt in the face of scenes of blood and rubble than being a pressure tool to stop the aggression. Israel has not retreated an inch; rather, it has intensified its ferocity, practically declaring that it will not accept a Palestinian state on any inch of land.

Since the start of the war, the goal has been clear: displacement. When the U.S. president invited Egypt and Jordan to shelter the Palestinians, the proposal was met with global rejection, and was replaced by a much harsher approach: systematic starvation, the prevention of aid, and targeting women and children to eliminate the upcoming generation. This is not just a war, but a complete demographic uprooting operation.

Today, the biggest loss is not just in the thousands of martyrs and missing persons, but in the collapse of any political approach to the Palestinian cause. The Israeli project – supported by the U.S. – is based on a fixed premise: that a Palestinian state will never be established. Therefore, we live in the most dangerous phase since the October War; where the Palestinian scene is being redrawn based on expulsion and famine.

The famine in Gaza is not just a local tragedy, but a moral and legal test for the entire international system. If the United Nations is unable to protect more than two million people from dying of hunger, what value does it have and what is the purpose of its charters? The whole world is concerned with this tragedy, not only because it is a bleeding humanitarian wound, but because it threatens to undermine what remains of stability in the Middle East and the world.