By John Pinel
THE dehumanisation of any group of people is usually the start of a systematic abuse of power which leads to atrocities becoming acceptable to one group over another. After the Second World War, the human race agreed “never again”. Never again would we permit a rogue government to round up an ethnic group of people, forcibly remove them from their homes, bomb and loot their property, incarcerate them in horrendous camps lacking in food, water and the most basic of needs, and then kill them as they try to comply with their aggressors’ directions. The current atrocities being committed in Gaza and the wider region, are all horribly familiar. Genocide is a word with a very precise and clearly defined meaning. Following the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi state during the Second World War, in 1948 the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It entered into force in 1951 after 20 countries had ratified the agreement. When respected international organisations use precise words to describe an ongoing conflict, we should listen carefully.
How morally bankrupt have we become in the 80 years since the Nazis were defeated in Europe, when we ignore international law and supply the weapons necessary to commit this carnage? A civilian bombing campaign; the intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure; the targeted detention, torture and killing of unprecedented numbers of journalists; United Nations staff; aid workers; doctors; nurses; ambulance drivers and children. Daily, for over a year, there has been another atrocity committed by the Israeli government, any one of which would cause international outrage if it was committed on our own territory, yet we aid and abet Israel in the carnage.
The 2021 census of Jersey recorded a total number of 16,476 children under the age of 16. This is roughly the same number of children who have been murdered in Gaza over the past year. Just imagine if every child in Jersey had been killed by a fascist government and our schools, offices, hospital, clinics, churches and roads were also destroyed. I struggle to understand our society when 17,000 dead children are considered to be acceptable collateral damage in a murderous campaign to spread terror and commit genocide. The history of human civilisation is punctuated with atrocities, but the problem with genocide is that you only know what meets the definition after the event, when the corpses can be counted. A key action by the international community is to step in when the threat of genocide is high and to act to stop it from occurring.
Our history is also one of popular revolt by civil society bringing about change for the benefit of humanity.
The fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa was brought about by a combination of internal struggles, but also by an international, consumer boycott of South African goods, services, in sports and the arts, starting in 1959. The regime finally fell in 1990, but Western governments remained staunch supporters of the apartheid state throughout the years of the boycott, despite United Nations resolutions against the South African government.
In 1962, Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on terrorism charges for organising a bombing campaign to bring about the end of apartheid. He is now recognised as an inspirational icon of human rights. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. It was international, public condemnation that brought about the end of that fascist regime, and public opinion was often in opposition to government policy.
Those rogue actors who demonstrated, carried out civil disobedience or were arrested for breaching government directions turned out to be on the right side of history. I wonder how we will view Gaza and Israel in 30 years’ time, and I wonder why our Attorney General thinks that it is in the public interest to use Jersey’s terrorism laws to arrest someone for demonstrating their common decency by speaking out against this current horror?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been going on for over two-and-a-half years now, with some estimates of a million soldiers killed, and around 12,000 civilians murdered. In just 15 months since Israel’s invasion they have killed tens of thousands of civilians and the whole of Gaza is in ruins.
If such a thing is possible, perhaps more disturbing than slaughtered children is the direction that our support of Israeli aggression takes us. When we ignore international law, when we support atrocities, when we refuse to accept the evidence in front of us and that brought to us by international organisations and the International Criminal Court, when we finance such slaughter, then we lose our identity as a half-decent society. As these horrors become normalised because we refuse to act against them, they become even more acceptable and the world slides into a terrible place where there is no longer any meaningful international law and crimes against humanity become acceptable, even desirable. We can all boycott Israeli goods and services, but only by demanding an immediate ceasefire will we enable a proper examination of the atrocities and the settling of the many crimes against humanity committed in this terrible and unnecessary conflict, to enable the prisoners, held by both sides, to return home.
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John Pinel is a freelance ecologist, born and educated in Jersey. A former civil servant, John has travelled widely and has worked in several roles in different countries. He is active in a number of local and international organisations and campaigns for social and environmental justice. He writes in a personal capacity and all opinions expressed are his own and do not reflect the view of any other organisation.
