The international community turns to the humanitarian paradigm to save itself, not Gaza

Had the international community decided to take a unified stance against the initial implemented plans to starve Gaza’s population, by now Israel would have nowhere to turn to. It took the atrocities committed at the distribution sites coordinated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Palestinians dying of starvation and, more recently, a photo of a Palestinian boy held by his mother, to prompt rising condemnations against Israel’s policy of starvation which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still dismisses.

Of course, the unequivocal condemnations will ultimately still serve Israel’s interests. The genocide in Gaza has been left to fester for too long. Nothing the international community says now can undo Israel’s process of colonising Gaza, unless it steps in to prevent both genocide and colonisation. Which of course, will not happen. The international human rights system is rooted in racism, hence the cycle of begging former colonial powers for rights, while the same powers back the last-remaining settler-colonial project serving Western interests.

Latching on belatedly to the masses’ cries to stop starvation in Gaza is a political ploy. There was no need for the photo to make rounds on social media for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to state that he shared “the distress that people around the world would feel when they look at young Mohammed, 1 year old.” People around the world have been distressed at the genocide since it started; they needed no photographic evidence of a starved child to feel distress. Politicians, though, function differently. They need a photo of macabre aesthetic quality to feel distress.

And while Israel has disputed the veracity of the photo, there are more photos of starved Palestinian children that failed to make as much of an impact. So when Israel denies starvation exists, does it deny this based on one photo, all photos, or the entire experience of what has become Gaza’s existence?

What about the international community’s sudden clamour to recognise starvation in Gaza but not genocide? Are world leaders pretending they had nothing to do with starvation, just because they called for humanitarian pauses and lamented the termination of UNRWA’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territories? The level of destruction caused by Israel’s bombing of Gaza never elicited such reactions, because there is far more visible complicity in that part of genocide. The international community believes that the humanitarian paradigm can still protect its creators. Hence speaking out against starvation, particularly when embellished by photos of the same people the international community helped Israel bomb, is a much easier ordeal.

But this should not be about diplomatic strategy. The focus is, after all, Palestinians experiencing genocide in Gaza as the latest step in Israel’s colonial strategy. Starvation is part of Israel’s genocidal strategy, and diplomats are implementing strategic steps to enable Israel to fulfil its territorial ambitions at the expense of Palestinian lives, which should matter according to international law, but don’t matter in terms of diplomacy. So, what is the international community trying to protect here? Palestinians from dying of starvation, or itself from visible complicity in genocide?

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250729-the-international-community-turns-to-the-humanitarian-paradigm-to-save-itself-not-gaza/