the elderly, innocent civilians, journalists, medical teams, and doctors to be targeted for execution? For mosques to be demolished on their worshippers? For residential towers, schools, and hospitals to be destroyed with those inside?
What does it mean for essential living resources such as food, water, housing, and healthcare to be targeted? For bakeries and potable water wells to be bombed? For hospitals to be blockaded, preventing even the burial of martyrs inside, while snipers obstruct movement between hospital sections?
What does it mean for the most advanced weapons of death and destruction to be used, severing limbs, decapitating heads, causing devastating deformities, and employing internationally banned chemical weapons like white phosphorus and incendiary bombs, resulting in thousands of martyrs and injured?
What does it mean for Palestinian elites, including doctors, engineers, journalists, and students, to be arrested in Gaza, stripped, and taken to unknown locations in trucks, reminiscent of the deportation of Jews within Europe by the Nazis during World War II?
The Credibility of the "Civilized" West Shaken
What does it mean—perhaps most alarmingly—for the Western system to rally in support of genocide, providing political and media backing for the narrative of the occupying entity, as well as military support by supplying it with advanced weaponry, while deploying powerful deterrent forces such as warships and aircraft carriers to operate day and night?
What does it mean for the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council, to use its veto power to block a ceasefire in Gaza? This decision coincided almost exactly with International Human Rights Day in a country that portrays itself as the leader of the free, liberal, democratic world. Doesn't this amount to giving the occupying entity the green light to perpetrate further killing and destruction against a people confined to an open-air prison?
What does it mean for pro-Palestinian demonstrations to be banned while demonstrations supporting the occupying entity are allowed? For Western landmarks to be lit up with the "Israeli" flag?
What does it mean for mosque imams to be prohibited from addressing the injustice, while demonstrations denouncing anti-Semitism are organized, as seen in France—a country that prides itself on being the birthplace of human rights and the French Revolution, which champions liberty, equality, and fraternity?
What does it mean for imams in Germany to be forced to denounce Hamas? For one German state to propose a law tying German citizenship to recognizing the State of "Israel"?
But the larger question remains: What does it mean for the world to celebrate "International Human Rights Day" amidst scenes of genocide, with overt support for the oppressor and the transformation of the victim into the criminal?
The shock has profound implications, as evidenced by the attempts to understand what is happening.
Here lies the fierce media war, no less intense than the battlefield itself. The essence of the media scene in this war is that images speak louder than a thousand speeches. Despite all the propaganda campaigns to distort the reality of genocide and destruction, the impact of images showing the remains and blood of innocent children, the elderly, women, and men leaves a deeper imprint on people’s minds.
Additionally, the prisoner exchange during the brief truce exposed the stark contrast in the treatment of captives by the resistance compared to that of prisoners in occupation jails. The public was shocked to see smiling captives released by the resistance, in contrast to images of child prisoners with broken hands and the suppression of any expressions of joy upon their release. Many spoke of the harsh conditions of their imprisonment.
These revealing images were enough to undermine the credibility of the occupying entity’s narrative and those of the Western politicians and media figures who align with it. This explains the beginning of a shift in international public opinion regarding Zionism and the entity representing it.
Moreover, trust in Western leaders supporting the occupying entity has begun to erode. Their unreserved allegiance and verbal and practical support for the occupying government and Zionist lobbying groups have led to a noticeable decline in their credibility. This is evident in President Biden's shifting rhetoric after realizing his popularity had plummeted.
Negative and Discouraging Messages for Future Generations
In this context, the anniversary of International Human Rights Day on December 10th raises a profound question: What rights are we speaking of when the destruction and genocide of children, women, and humanity continue in plain sight of the world, amidst international failure to stop the machinery of devastation?
What messages will be etched into the minds of upcoming generations, particularly the youth who have internalized the meanings of freedom, respect for human (and even animal) dignity, and who have studied international law and the role of institutions such as the United Nations and the Security Council in maintaining peace? These are negative and discouraging messages, making it increasingly difficult to convince anyone of the credibility of human rights, their slogans, international law, and the institutions that advocate for them.
Undermining the framework of human rights, in essence, means encouraging individuals to rebel against laws—starting within the family, extending to schools, communities, and nations. It also fosters group rebellion, emboldens authoritarian regimes to oppress their people and restrict their freedoms with impunity, and promotes the rule of the jungle, where might makes right, with the most brutal and arrogant prevailing. Consequently, this leads to the absence of coexistence and social harmony while fueling racism and hatred.
Today, humanity stands at the edge of a dangerous crossroads in the realm of human rights. The lines have been blurred, the compass lost, and references eroded due to the arrogance of the occupying entity, its defiance of international institutions, and its blatant disregard for laws, treaties, and international norms. All of this occurs amid a complete inability to curb its defiance. When will wise minds—leaders, thinkers, and advocates—wake up to stop this dangerous descent, which threatens to destroy human civilization?
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