We cannot stand by and enable the carnage

There are no words to describe the shock, distress and pain we are feeling at seeing the lives of Gazans destroyed so extensively and indiscriminately. The killing of innocent civilians and the destruction of close to half of their homes and infrastructure goes beyond even the most brutal wars we have witnessed in recent history. Gazans have been living in an open-air prison for decades, but one could never have imagined a prison in which innocent women and children are so widely and indiscriminately murdered by their jailers, all while destroying any form of shelter, and the cutting off of food, water and electricity they used to receive so intermittently. The lives of Gazans have been destroyed many times over, and now their challenge is simply to survive.

When looking at Gaza from above, it is as though a plague of locusts had blanketed the territory, razing the homes to the ground, pillaging all reserves of food and water, taking tens of thousands of lives and leaving but the husk of any imaginable life in the future. It is a terrifyingly tragic sight, an assault on life, and the disregard of any common humanity we thought we all shared. A defenseless people are suffering the rage of one of the most technologically-sophisticated armies in the world. It is simply incomprehensible how such an assault could ever take place, but also how it could effectively be sanctioned by several of the world’s great powers, turning upside down everything we say and claim to value as fellow human beings.

It is difficult to absorb how anaesthetized we appear in front of an assault, a tragedy, a catastrophe of such magnitude. In the media and through the UN we see the countless women and children who are being killed, we see an entire population of more than 2 million people forced to flee multiple times, only to be bombed once again in zones the attackers had told them were safe. The lack of reaction, horror and indignation is most troubling, as though we were used to witnessing such uncommon carnage and destruction every day. This is like watching thousands of people being poisoned and dying right in front of us. As the survivors kiss the dead, they become the next to die, with no hope but perhaps to help protect the lives of future Palestinians.

Seeing such evil play itself out is a terrible thing, remaining silent is another, and officially sanctioning it for reasons we cannot make clear is the most difficult to fathom. When the UN Security Council was seized upon multiple times to issue a call for an immediate end to the senseless carnage, several major countries abstained, opposed or even vetoed calls for a ceasefire. It is one thing to mistakenly support evil through good intentions and to make amends; it is entirely another to witness death and destruction on such a scale and to continue not only to do nothing about it but to actively oppose its ending. There must be a cost to such a morally untenable position contributing to the fastest killing of innocent civilians and destruction of their infrastructure in recent memory.

The cost must be moral, political and financial. By enabling, arming and protecting the perpetrators of such carnage, one becomes responsible also for large-scale murder, as any active accomplice to a crime carries a responsibility. Israel and its accomplices must pay a price for the indiscriminate death and destruction they have sowed, just as Hamas and its gunmen must pay a price for theirs. From individuals to countries, the price to pay must be in accordance with the damages done but, importantly, must also dissuade anyone from aiding and abetting such crimes in the future. We thank South Africa for their initiative to try to hold the perpetrators responsible, particularly as a country that has overcome such crimes through Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the likes of which we can only dream of for Israel and Palestine.

It is no simple task to find ways to hold some of the most powerful countries in the world accountable for the human costs of their policies. The UN Security Council unfortunately has represented the worst kind of naked power, preventing the world from taking positive action due to the veto of the most powerful. The UN General Assembly may not be able to issue binding resolutions, but it still represents the voice of the world, all its countries assembled and all offered the same vote and the same voice. Until we find other ways, the General Assembly must come together to issue a resolution condemning the assault on the innocent people of Gaza, condemning the violent acts also of Hamas, and calling for anyone enabling these actions not only to cease their support thereof but to participate in compensating the families of the dead, in rebuilding Gaza. And redoubling their efforts for peace through an unambiguous commitment to achieve a full resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict within one or two years at most.

After seeing the darkest of humankind play out in Israel and in Gaza, we must encourage the light again to shine through by challenging the naked power of the Security Council with the voice of the world, the hearts and minds of humanity, through the General Assembly. Only by taking further initiatives and efforts to hold those enabling the killing of innocent civilians and the destruction of livelihoods accountable, can we ensure that such callous behavior simply becomes too costly in moral, political and financial terms. We can no longer stand by and allow for the worst of humankind to play out unchallenged. 

• Hassan bin Youssef Yassin worked closely with Saudi Arabia’s petroleum ministers Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani from 1959 to 1967. He led the Saudi Information Office in Washington from 1972 to 1981 and served with the Arab League’s observer delegation to the UN from 1981 to 1983.