Absolute horror awaited us when we woke up on Monday, in the form of images from Rafah. A refugee camp bombed in the middle of the night, in a designated “safe” area. Tents burning, children burned alive, dismembered, decapitated; tents melting and with them, the bodies, it was reported. These are images that cannot be forgotten. Unforgettable and inexcusable, no matter the circumstances. Nothing justifies such a radical denial of humanity. Nothing.
The international community was immediately stunned. A few days after the judgment rendered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to cease the ongoing assault and to withdraw its troops from Gaza, and the filing of requests for arrest warrants targeting Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the attack appears as a direct affront.
Prime Minister Netanyahu of course defended himself by pleading error, and by recalling that his troops were doing everything possible to avoid hitting non-combatant civilians. Israeli forces later said they had actually targeted Rafah with “precision weapons”, but unfortunately a fuel tank then caught fire, explaining the ravaged encampment.
As if it was the first time, in the context of this conflict, that civilians have been directly targeted, or swept aside with indifference in the category of collateral damage. After all, accusations of war crimes against Israeli forces have multiplied over the past seven months and, although the examination of these allegations continues, the inability of international humanitarian law to prevent crimes against humanity and protect civilians is striking, painful.
This is what adds to the horror of the Rafah massacre: the purely symbolic nature of the indignation expressed by the international community. This week, several actors condemned the attack in the empty terms we are accustomed to.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared that Canada did not support military operations in Rafah, and ordered an end to all this “human suffering”. French President Emmanuel Macron said he was outraged and called for an end to these operations.
The process has become redundant. We loudly proclaim that Israel must respect international law and better protect civilians. We stamp our feet, we roll our eyes, and then: nothing. No sanctions, no real diplomatic or geopolitical pressure. Where it counts – financial and military support – the field remains open.
Obviously, the United States turns a blind eye to the horror, continuing to excuse its unwavering ally. Earlier in May, President Joe Biden said an invasion of Rafah would cross a “red line” beyond which the United States could no longer continue sending artillery and bombs to Israeli forces. . However, in the aftermath of the Rafah massacre, the US response remained weak. Mr. Biden appealed for measure and precautions, nothing more.
Meanwhile, the president’s political opponent, former candidate for the Republican nomination and supporter of Donald Trump Nikki Haley, relayed on X her dedication affixed to an Israeli shell, during a visit to the festival site Nova, targeted on October 7 by the Hamas attack: “ Finish them all! USA [coeur] Israel “.
This approval, tacit or explicit, of a despicable massacre confirms what we already knew: for the United States, and with them the entire West, the red line does not exist. The violence permitted against Palestinians seems unlimited, without limits.
The moral bankruptcy of States is complete and complete. It is not for nothing that, in the face of this, pressure is mounting within civil society. For example, in the wake of the Rafah massacre this week, riots broke out in Mexico City, during a rally in front of the Israeli embassy.
At home, the pressure exerted on university establishments by student camps is indeed moving the lines. Not much, not enough, but it’s moving. Previously, universities said nothing about Israel’s conduct in this conflict; not a word about their financial ties with Israel, not a word about the fate reserved for the Palestinians. However, here they are engaged in negotiations with the mobilized students.
The University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) committed this week to adopting a series of measures aimed at withdrawing its investments benefiting arms companies and ensuring that its institutional partners respect human rights, in exchange for the dismantling of the camp on its land. At McGill, even if the tone remains harsh, it is clear that we are now discussing the merits of the case, and no longer just the formalities linked to the camp. We are obviously a long way from a large-scale reversal of the balance of power, but it is not nothing.
For several weeks, a phrase has been circulating a lot on the Web: the colonized peoples see themselves in the Palestinian people, while the colonial powers recognize themselves in Israel, and tremble. This undoubtedly explains the total absence of political leadership on this issue; a mixture of fear and bad conscience. However, this also means that it is popular pressure that will change the situation.