Israel is a rogue, terrorist state enabled by Western complicity

Israel’s history of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza has increasingly isolated it, even among some of its Western supporters.
 
By Fareed Khan
 
Since its founding in 1948, Israel has pursued policies against Palestinians that constitute severe violations of international law, including apartheid, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. From the Nakba to the ongoing devastation in Gaza, Israel’s actions, enabled by unwavering Western support, reveal a state operating beyond the bounds of legality and morality.

The Nakba, during Israel’s establishment in 1947–1948, marked the beginning of Israel’s crimes. Zionist, terrorist militias, such as Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, orchestrated violent campaigns, ethnically cleansing over 750,000 Palestinians and destroying hundreds of villages. Leaders like Menachem Begin, implicated in the 1946 King David Hotel bombing that killed 91 people and the Deir Yassin massacre where over 100 Palestinian civilians were slaughtered, and Yitzhak Shamir, who endorsed assassinations, later became Israeli prime ministers. Their actions, constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity under modern standards, set a precedent for Israel’s impunity.

Upon joining the United Nations in 1949, Israel pledged to honour UN Resolution 194, guaranteeing Palestinian refugees the right to return or receive compensation. Yet, for over 75 years, Israel has violated this commitment. The 1950 Absentee Property Law facilitated the confiscation of Palestinian properties, and by 1952, according to Israeli archives, over 400 villages had been depopulated or destroyed, with refugees barred from returning, in defiance of international law. This betrayal underscores Israel’s disregard for its UN obligations, which has been the case since it joined the international body.

Israel’s violations extend beyond the Nakba. The state has consistently flouted the Geneva Conventions through collective punishment, home demolitions, and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

The Hague Conventions, prohibiting land appropriation in occupied territories, are violated by Israel’s annexation and construction of Jewish-only settlements, undermining the viability of a two-state solution.

The UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force is disregarded through Israel’s military assaults on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. Over 40 UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s actions have been ignored, often shielded by US vetoes.

Israel’s apartheid system, as documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, mocks the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Palestinian citizens of Israel face systemic discrimination, while occupied Palestinians live under military law, unlike Jewish settlers who enjoy civilian protections.

The ongoing Gaza campaign, described by UN experts and genocide scholars as genocidal, has killed over 61,000 Palestinians since October 2023, predominantly civilians, and systematically destroyed healthcare, education, and civilian infrastructure. Israel’s weaponization of food and aid, causing famine and starvation, also violates the 1948 Genocide Convention, and is in violation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) provisional orders to prevent genocide.

Western powers, particularly the United States, bear significant responsibility for enabling these violations. The US has provided over $150 billion in military aid since 1948, including munitions used in Gaza. The UK, France, and Germany have supplied weapons and diplomatic cover, often vetoing or abstaining on UN resolutions seeking accountability. This support has emboldened Israel to ignore UN resolutions and ICJ rulings, implicating these nations in violations of the Genocide Convention for failing to prevent or punish such acts.

This complicity exposes the fragility of the post-World War II international legal order. The US and its allies selectively enforce international law, condemning adversaries while excusing Israel’s transgressions. This double standard undermines the credibility of institutions like the UN, revealing a system where geopolitical agendas overshadow justice. The failure to hold Israel accountable demonstrates that international law often serves the powerful, allowing a rogue state to act with impunity.

Israel’s policies stem from Zionism, a racist ideology proclaiming Jews as "the chosen people, that prioritizes Jewish claims to Palestinian land, and dehumanizes Palestinians who are seen as obstacles to a Jews only state. Public statements by Zionist leaders, from Theodor Herzl to modern officials, label Palestinians as “terrorists,” echoing supremacist ideologies like Nazism. Policies of ethnic cleansing, segregation, and mass killing reflect this racist doctrine, rendering Zionism incompatible with the concept of universal human rights.

Western support for Israel is further underpinned by xenophobic attitudes toward Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs within Western media, which often portrays Palestinians as inherently violent, all the while ignoring their dispossession and oppression. This bias, coupled with a deeply embedded Islamophobia, allows Western governments to justify arming Israel while dismissing Palestinian calls for justice. Without this support, Israel’s ability to sustain its occupation and violence would likely have faltered, enabling accountability decades ago.

Israel’s history of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza has increasingly isolated it, even among some of its Western supporters. Global protests and boycott movements signal growing condemnation and isolation, and this will lead to Israel and the nations supporting it being judged harshly in the history books. The mass murder and genocide of Palestinians, facilitated by Western complicity, will be seen as the a moral failure of our era, just as the Holocaust is seen as the moral failure of an earlier time.

If there is to be justice for Palestinians it requires dismantling the structures sustaining Israel’s race-based policies, akin to the reconstitution of fascist Japan and Nazi Germany into democratic states. This begins with ending Western military and diplomatic support for a state that has violated its UN commitments, the Geneva, Hague, and Vienna Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Genocide Convention.

Global momentum for Palestinian justice is growing, particularly among non-Western nations and the Global South. History will likely affirm that Zionism, like Nazism, is a racist ideology, and Israel’s legacy, alongside that of its Western enablers, will be one of shame for perpetuating crimes against a people whose only wish has been to seek freedom and equality, a people who it can be reasonably said, are the most oppressed people in the world.

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