EDITORIAL: The images from Gaza no longer shock because they have become routine: bodies dragged from rubble, families torn apart, entire neighbourhoods reduced to dust. This is not the fog of war; it is in fact systematic destruction, and the world’s most authoritative voices have now named it for what it is: genocide.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry has concluded that Israel is carrying out four of the five acts defined under the Genocide Convention. Human rights groups, aid agencies and even Israel’s traditional allies in Europe have echoed the charge. Yet the bombs continue to fall, exacting a massive death toll on a daily basis.

The reason is clear. None of this would have been possible without the political shield and military lifeline extended by the United States. Washington supplies the weapons, vetoes Security Council resolutions, and spins the narrative that Israel is merely exercising its right to self-defence. This cover allows Israel to ignore censure, shrug off sanctions, and carry out one of the most sustained campaigns of annihilation in modern history.

The statistics alone tell a story of intent: more than 64,000 Palestinians killed, over 90 percent of homes damaged or destroyed, healthcare and sanitation collapsed, famine declared in Gaza City, and repeated forced displacements pushing an entire population to the brink.

European capitals are no longer pretending otherwise. France, Britain and others that long stood by Israel are now forced to reckon with the evidence.

Some have moved towards recognition of Palestine as a state. Others have openly censured Tel Aviv’s conduct and called it intolerable.

But their voices, however strong on paper, change nothing in practice because Washington has decided to stay the course. Israel knows that as long as it has America’s blessing, it can defy the international community without fear of consequence. This impunity has turned the Genocide Convention itself into a hollow document, a set of principles selectively enforced depending on who holds the levers of global power.

The hypocrisy is staggering. The same United States, which claims fighting and backing wars in the name of human rights and the rule of law, now finds itself defending a client state accused of the most serious crime under international law. When South Africa brought a genocide case to the International Court of Justice, Washington dismissed it as political theatre.

When UN experts and commissions presented evidence of genocidal intent, the response was to question their credibility rather than confront the facts. Even now, with famine deaths rising and children buried under collapsed buildings, the US Secretary of State insists that Israel must be given space to finish the job.

The longer this continues, the greater the damage to what remains of the international system. If genocide can be committed in full view of the world, with live-streamed evidence and detailed reports from UN bodies, and still go unpunished because of one country’s veto, then what does international law mean? If the Genocide Convention cannot be enforced against a state that so brazenly meets its criteria, what message does that send to future perpetrators?

The consequences extend beyond Gaza. Israel’s impunity feeds extremism across the region, undermines any prospect of a two-state solution, and destabilises relations far beyond the Middle East. Already, anger at western double standards has fuelled political movements from North Africa to South Asia.

The United States is discovering that its defence of Israel is eroding its own moral authority, alienating allies, and accelerating the very multipolar world it fears.

For the Palestinians, however, the price is paid in blood. Their right to return, their right to statehood, and their very right to exist are being buried under the rubble of Gaza City. Israel claims it is targeting Hamas, but the pattern of destruction — schools, hospitals, mosques, residential towers — reveals a broader intent: to break a people beyond recovery. That is why the UN inquiry concluded that genocide is the only reasonable inference.

The international community has a duty, not just under law but under conscience, to act. Europe must move beyond words and impose real costs on Israel. Muslim states must turn solidarity into strategy, using economic and diplomatic leverage where possible. But ultimately, the fulcrum remains in Washington.

Until the United States withdraws its shield, Israel will continue with impunity. The tragedy of Gaza is not only Israel’s crime, but America’s complicity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025