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How could they have allowed that to happen?
This is the question everyone asks, years later, when looking back at mass atrocity crimes in the past. Everything’s so clear when it’s described in history books – war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide…
It’s not that these things aren’t clear at the time exactly. In fact, in recent decades, they have often been well-documented in excruciating detail more or less as they happen.
Yet, somehow, when these things are unfolding in real time, some folks seem unable – maybe, more often, unwilling – to accept the evidence of their eyes and ears. Various considerations distract international leaders in particular: prejudices, alliances, politics...
There can never be any justification for the worst kinds of crimes known to humanity, but that doesn’t keep leaders from trying to offer some.
And with that, you move toward the future answer to the future question: The world at the time had leaders who refused to take a stand and defend humanity when it mattered most.
Today, everyone can see Israel has been committing atrocities in Gaza during hostilities since October 7, 2023. We’ve seen systematic destruction of homes, apartment buildings, orchards and fields, schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation facilities. Israel has also openly used starvation as a weapon of war.
These actions amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity including extermination, and acts of genocide.
Now, the Israeli government’s latest plan has made its intentions even clearer. They want to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population (about 2 million people) into one tiny area.
Israeli government ministers couldn’t make things any more obvious. They say Israel is “finally going to conquer the Gaza Strip.” They threaten that Gaza will be “completely destroyed” and say its Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers to third countries.”
Some Israeli officials say the Palestinian exodus will be “voluntary.” However, it’s hard to call it voluntary, when Israel has deliberately destroyed the area’s ability to sustain human life.
If implemented, the plan would amount to an abhorrent escalation of extermination. In fact, Israel’s plan is so obviously extreme and has been made so extremely obvious, it should trigger international action under the Genocide Convention’s “duty to prevent.”
The 1948 Genocide Convention is an international agreement that embodies the spirit of “never again.” It says a “duty to prevent” genocide arises as soon as a state learns, or should normally have learned, of a serious risk that genocide may be committed.
One hundred and fifty-three countries have signed up to the Convention. These include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Yet, these are some of the very countries that have been supporting the government of Israel most throughout its carnage in Gaza, not least by continuing to provide Israel with weapons even after the atrocities were undeniable.
Israel’s latest plan should finally, at long last, shake London, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, and Washington to their core. It should make them see beyond everyday politics, to their responsibility to humanity and history – and to their legal obligation to act.
Without that, the question one day may indeed be, “How could they have allowed that to happen?” And everyone will know the answer.
