Duplicity of human rights champions

Saturday 24th February, 2024

The West has taken upon itself the task of protecting human rights and democracy in the world and meting out punishment to those who violate them. It has thus been able to weaponise human rights to compass its geopolitical interests. It manipulates the UN, especially the UNHRC, for that purpose. The western governments readily confer pariah status on the countries which they consider human rights violators; they even resort to extreme measures such as imposing economic sanctions and resorting to military action in the name of their human rights crusaders.

They went so far as to plunge Iraq and Libya into anarchy to oust Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, respectively, for human rights violations and endangering democracy, among other things. Strangely, they have done precious little to prevent genocidal violence Israel is unleashing against Palestinians in Gaza, where about 30,000 lives are reported to have already been lost due to Israeli attacks since 07 Oct. 2023.

The UK is at the forefront of the western crusade against the nations responsible for large-scale human rights violations and attacks on democracy. Given Britain’s much-advertised concern for human rights, one would have expected the British Parliament to make a unanimous call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding.

But the British lawmakers are far from united in protecting the Palestinians’ human rights. On Wednesday, many of them stormed out of Parliament over a vote on a ceasefire in Gaza, throwing the House into turmoil. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle came under fire for being partial, and subsequently he apologised for the decision to go for a vote.

The Labour leaders said they could not support the motion moved by the SNP (Scottish National Party) calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, because it sought to condemn ‘collective punishment’ of the Palestinian people, and did not specify that the ceasefire it was asking for had to be observed by both Israel and Hamas. This, we believe, is an absurd argument.

If what is being inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza is not ‘collective punishment’ what is it? That all parties to a conflict have to observe a ceasefire goes without saying, and it defies comprehension why the Labour leaders made an issue of a non-issue. They should have mustered the courage to say that they did not want to antagonise Israel by supporting that motion.

Labour has been embroiled in an intraparty dispute over its policy towards the Israeli invasion of Gaza, and its MPs have been trying to serve self-interest rather than taking a principled stand and pushing for an immediate ceasefire to save lives in Gaza, where not even hospitals are safe. The Labour leaders, who are widely expected to win the next parliamentary election, are pandering to Washington, which is unflinchingly backing Israel to the hilt while paying lip service to human rights in Gaza.

Perhaps, the West has never been exposed for its duplicity in this manner, but it will not give up championing human rights and democracy, or rather using them as instruments to advance its geo-political agendas. It has no sense of shame.