The Gaza genocide lays bare the collapse of global conscience and moral courage. Western powers—self-proclaimed guardians of the post-World War Two order—have rendered “Never Again” a cruel farce.
By Fareed Khan
The ongoing genocide in Gaza,
characterized by a staggering death toll and widespread destruction, has laid
bare a profound moral failure in the global community, particularly among
Western nations that constructed the post-World War Two international order.
The phrase “Never Again,” solemnly invoked each year on Holocaust Remembrance
Day, has been exposed as an empty promise, and some would even say, a lie,
undermined by geopolitical interests as well as societal and institutional biases.
With a death toll of 70,300 as of July 2025, and estimates by Israeli academic Yaakov
Garb suggesting between 377,000 and 400,000 Palestinian deaths based on Israeli military data, the
scale of the catastrophe is undeniable. Israel’s brutality and genocidal intent
in Gaza, along with the refusal of Western nations which have to power to stop
it but don’t, reveals the death of global conscience and morality. It seems that the Western alliance, led by
the United States prioritizes their geopolitical and economic interests over
human lives, perpetuating institutional anti-Palestinian racism and
Islamophobia, and exposing the so-called “international rule of law” as a tool to
serve only Western geopolitical interests. The complicity of Western leaders,
media, and corporations, coupled with the failure of Western leaders to act
decisively, as they did in Kosovo in the
late 90s, mirrors the decline of the League of Nations in the 1930s, signalling a moral abyss that threatens the legitimacy of the global order.
The hollow promise of “never again”
The post-World War Two order,
established by Western allies to prevent atrocities like the Holocaust, was
founded on the principle of universality—the idea that human rights apply to
all, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. The Genocide Convention of 1948 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were meant to enshrine this commitment. Yet,
the Gaza genocide has exposed “Never Again” as a discriminatory mantra, applied
primarily to protect Zionist interests while sidelining Palestinian rights and suffering.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has explicitly labelled Israel’s
actions as genocide, stating that the process has reached “a level of savagery”
that demands global attention. Similarly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the situation in Gaza a “moral crisis that challenges
the global conscience,” highlighting the failure of the international community
to act. Yet, despite global calls to
intervene to stop Israel’s atrocities and help the people of Gaza no action has been taken.
Zionist lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), B’nai Brith, and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Canada, as well as similar Zionist organizations in the United Kingdom, Germany and other Western nations, have played a significant role in this moral failure. These organizations, while claiming to advocate for Jewish rights, have been accused of promoting anti-Palestinian narratives and Islamophobia. For instance, the ADL and other Zionist voices have faced heavy criticism for equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, effectively silencing dissent, including from Jews who oppose the genocide.
Posts on social media have echoed this sentiment, with users noting that even Jewish scholars like Raz Segal, who labelled Israel’s actions as a “textbook case of genocide,” have faced repercussions, such as the rescinding of a job offer at the University of Minnesota. This selective application of “Never Again” reveals a troubling double standard, where Palestinian are devalued and dehumanized, and even anti-Zionist Jews are targeted for their dissent.
Western complicity and geopolitical priorities
Western democracies, particularly the United States, have demonstrated a stark indifference to Palestinian suffering for decades, prioritizing their own geopolitical and economic interests over moral imperatives. The US has provided unwavering military and diplomatic support to Israel, supplying weapons that have been used against Palestinians and vetoing UN ceasefire resolutions, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s actions plausibly constitute genocide.
All of this contrasts sharply with the US-led intervention in Kosovo in 1999, where NATO acted swiftly to halt war crimes, and crimes against humanity citing humanitarian concerns. The disparity suggests that Western intervention is contingent on alignment with strategic interests, such as maintaining control in the Middle East and countering the power and influence of Muslim-majority nations.
Leaders from South Africa, Ireland, Spain, and Brazil have condemned Israel’s actions as genocidal, highlighting the moral bankruptcy of Western powers. Former Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar called for accountability, stating that the Gaza crisis exposes “double standards” in international law. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has similarly criticized the “indiscriminate killing” of Palestinians, while Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has condemned Israel’s actions as “genocide”, and his government announced that Brazil will support the South African ICJ case against Israel, framing it as a necessary stand to oppose Israel’s crimes. These voices underscore the growing frustration among some nations with Western hypocrisy which claims to uphold human rights but instead enables Israel’s actions through arms sales and diplomatic cover.
Institutional anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia
The Gaza genocide has laid bare the entrenched anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia permeating Western governments and societies, driven by Zionist organizations and the Israeli state, and perpetuated by political voices, mainstream news media, and corporations. This systemic bias mirrors the historic persecution Jews endured for centuries, revealing a chilling parallel in the dehumanization of Palestinians. A 2024 analysis by Al Jazeera exposed Westernmedia outlets, which consistently frame the Israel-Palestine conflict to favour Israeli narratives, downplaying Palestinian suffering and portraying their resistance in a negative light, usually as acts of “terrorism”.
Whistle blowers from CNN and the BBC have revealed deliberate editorial interference, including the airing of unverified Israeli propaganda despite internal warnings and a failure to challenge Israeli officials in interviews. Corporate complicity deepens this injustice, with Francesca Albanese’s report implicating not only arms giants like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon but also companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Chevron, Airbnb, and Barclays, all profiting from Israel’s apartheid system while prioritizing economic gain over moral accountability.
Social media platforms have amplified voices calling out this bias. Posts highlight how Western media outlets rarely report the full extent of the Palestinian death toll while focusing on Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023, and Israeli lies about "beheaded babies." This selective outrage reinforces a narrative that Palestinian lives are less valuable, a form of institutional dehumanization rooted in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic tropes that cast brown people from the Middle East as threats to “Western civilization.” Israeli leaders like President Isaac Herzog have fueled this rhetoric, claiming that the war in Gaza is a defense of “Western civilization” against a “Jihadist network.” Such statements echo historical dehumanization campaigns, justifying mass violence by portraying the targeted group as less than human.
The fallacy of the international rule of law
As a result of the West abandoning the so-called “international rule of law” and “international legal order” with respect to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the post World War Two order has been exposed as a tool of Western hegemony, designed to suppress racialized nations and those in the global south while protecting allies like Israel. The system of laws, treaties and conventions created after World War Two, including institutions like the United Nations, was meant to prevent atrocities, yet it has repeatedly failed Palestinians for decades, as well as people like the Rohingya and the Uyghurs. As noted in a 2024 Foreign Affairs article by Agnès Callamard, the Gaza crisis marks the “end of the rules-based order,” as Western powers have normalized violations of international law, from indiscriminate bombing to collective punishment.
The US and some of its allies, including the United Kingdom and Canada, have stated their opposition to South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel despite overwhelming evidence of Israeli crimes. This selective application of international law mirrors the failures of the League of Nations in the 1930s, which collapsed due to major powers intentionally violating its rules. The League’s inability to stop Japan’s invasion of Manchuria or Italy’s attack on Ethiopia parallels the UN’s failure to enforce accountability in Gaza.
Zionist lobby groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), B’nai Brith, and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Canada, as well as similar Zionist organizations in the United Kingdom, Germany and other Western nations, have played a significant role in this moral failure. These organizations, while claiming to advocate for Jewish rights, have been accused of promoting anti-Palestinian narratives and Islamophobia. For instance, the ADL and other Zionist voices have faced heavy criticism for equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, effectively silencing dissent, including from Jews who oppose the genocide.
Posts on social media have echoed this sentiment, with users noting that even Jewish scholars like Raz Segal, who labelled Israel’s actions as a “textbook case of genocide,” have faced repercussions, such as the rescinding of a job offer at the University of Minnesota. This selective application of “Never Again” reveals a troubling double standard, where Palestinian are devalued and dehumanized, and even anti-Zionist Jews are targeted for their dissent.
Western complicity and geopolitical priorities
Western democracies, particularly the United States, have demonstrated a stark indifference to Palestinian suffering for decades, prioritizing their own geopolitical and economic interests over moral imperatives. The US has provided unwavering military and diplomatic support to Israel, supplying weapons that have been used against Palestinians and vetoing UN ceasefire resolutions, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel’s actions plausibly constitute genocide.
All of this contrasts sharply with the US-led intervention in Kosovo in 1999, where NATO acted swiftly to halt war crimes, and crimes against humanity citing humanitarian concerns. The disparity suggests that Western intervention is contingent on alignment with strategic interests, such as maintaining control in the Middle East and countering the power and influence of Muslim-majority nations.
Leaders from South Africa, Ireland, Spain, and Brazil have condemned Israel’s actions as genocidal, highlighting the moral bankruptcy of Western powers. Former Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar called for accountability, stating that the Gaza crisis exposes “double standards” in international law. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has similarly criticized the “indiscriminate killing” of Palestinians, while Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has condemned Israel’s actions as “genocide”, and his government announced that Brazil will support the South African ICJ case against Israel, framing it as a necessary stand to oppose Israel’s crimes. These voices underscore the growing frustration among some nations with Western hypocrisy which claims to uphold human rights but instead enables Israel’s actions through arms sales and diplomatic cover.
Institutional anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia
The Gaza genocide has laid bare the entrenched anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia permeating Western governments and societies, driven by Zionist organizations and the Israeli state, and perpetuated by political voices, mainstream news media, and corporations. This systemic bias mirrors the historic persecution Jews endured for centuries, revealing a chilling parallel in the dehumanization of Palestinians. A 2024 analysis by Al Jazeera exposed Westernmedia outlets, which consistently frame the Israel-Palestine conflict to favour Israeli narratives, downplaying Palestinian suffering and portraying their resistance in a negative light, usually as acts of “terrorism”.
Whistle blowers from CNN and the BBC have revealed deliberate editorial interference, including the airing of unverified Israeli propaganda despite internal warnings and a failure to challenge Israeli officials in interviews. Corporate complicity deepens this injustice, with Francesca Albanese’s report implicating not only arms giants like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon but also companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Chevron, Airbnb, and Barclays, all profiting from Israel’s apartheid system while prioritizing economic gain over moral accountability.
Social media platforms have amplified voices calling out this bias. Posts highlight how Western media outlets rarely report the full extent of the Palestinian death toll while focusing on Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023, and Israeli lies about "beheaded babies." This selective outrage reinforces a narrative that Palestinian lives are less valuable, a form of institutional dehumanization rooted in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic tropes that cast brown people from the Middle East as threats to “Western civilization.” Israeli leaders like President Isaac Herzog have fueled this rhetoric, claiming that the war in Gaza is a defense of “Western civilization” against a “Jihadist network.” Such statements echo historical dehumanization campaigns, justifying mass violence by portraying the targeted group as less than human.
The fallacy of the international rule of law
As a result of the West abandoning the so-called “international rule of law” and “international legal order” with respect to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the post World War Two order has been exposed as a tool of Western hegemony, designed to suppress racialized nations and those in the global south while protecting allies like Israel. The system of laws, treaties and conventions created after World War Two, including institutions like the United Nations, was meant to prevent atrocities, yet it has repeatedly failed Palestinians for decades, as well as people like the Rohingya and the Uyghurs. As noted in a 2024 Foreign Affairs article by Agnès Callamard, the Gaza crisis marks the “end of the rules-based order,” as Western powers have normalized violations of international law, from indiscriminate bombing to collective punishment.
The US and some of its allies, including the United Kingdom and Canada, have stated their opposition to South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel despite overwhelming evidence of Israeli crimes. This selective application of international law mirrors the failures of the League of Nations in the 1930s, which collapsed due to major powers intentionally violating its rules. The League’s inability to stop Japan’s invasion of Manchuria or Italy’s attack on Ethiopia parallels the UN’s failure to enforce accountability in Gaza.
The Gaza Tribunal in Sarajevo, held in May 2025, documented this erosion, with Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani arguing that Israel and its enablers aim to make Gaza “the graveyard of international law” for all people. The tribunal’s findings highlight how the “Israel exception” to international law, rooted in the 1947 UN Partition Plan and almost eight decades of subsequent Western support, has undermined global cooperation and the UN’s legitimacy.
The moral abyss and historical parallels
The Gaza genocide has plunged the world into a moral abyss, exposing the fragility of the global conscience. The West’s refusal to act decisively, despite overwhelming evidence of genocide, has damaged the international order in ways reminiscent of the 1930s where the League of Nations failed to prevent major powers prioritizing their interests over collective security, allowing aggression to go unchecked. Similarly, the West’s complicity in Gaza—through arms, funding, and diplomatic support to Israel—signals a retreat from the principles of universality and human rights, which has done irreparable damage to the international rule of law.
The moral failure is not just a betrayal of Palestinians but a warning to all peoples of the world that their rights and safety are not guaranteed, despite legal instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Genocide Convention, or the United Nations itself. As noted in a 2024 Al-Shabaka commentary, the genocide has sparked a “paradigmatic rupture,” forcing a reckoning with the colonial underpinnings of international law. Without meaningful reform, the international order risks further erosion, paving the way for unchecked impunity and global instability. The voices of those nations that have demonstrated that they have a moral compass—South Africa and the nations supporting its genocide case against Israel—offer a path forward, demanding accountability and a decolonized framework that prioritizes justice for all.
The Gaza genocide, with its relentless carnage and the world’s inaction to stop it, lays bare the collapse of global conscience and moral courage. Western powers, the self-proclaimed guardians of the post-World War Two order, have rendered “Never Again” a cruel farce and a meaningless public relations exercise, wielded to shield Zionist agendas while Palestinian agony and misery is callously ignored. The heinous nature of the atrocities committed by Israel marks a shattering rupture in humanity’s moral arc, exposing a global system rooted not in justice but in raw power. It is a searing indictment, demanding a new international order where universal human rights are not just rhetoric but reality. To falter or turn away is to admit that "human rights" are a hollow lie, leaving no one’s dignity or safety secure anywhere in the world.
© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.
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