Features
Israel-Hamas war placing humanity at a crossroads
Parts of the resolution underscored the need for: ‘Urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable, consistent with international humanitarian law, the full, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners.’ Twelve states had voted for the resolution, thereby ensuring its adoption but the abstention from voting by the mentioned big powers indicates that humanitarian considerations at the heart of the Gaza conflagration are yet to receive the unreserved support of some key states in the UN system.
Since the above vote, the world has been given to understand that the main parties to the conflict are close to clinching a deal on the release and exchange of some hostages, but there is no doubt that ‘ordinary people’ everywhere would have expected an unreserved ‘Yes’ vote to the mentioned resolution by the specified major powers.
As matters stand, though, one is compelled to conclude that there are no ready takers for humanity or compassion among the ruling strata in some key states of the UN system. However, there is no doubt that the publics of these states would have, by and large, thought otherwise and opted for human consideration and empathy.
It is timely and topical for Southern and Northern publics to deliberate on and debate widely these questions at the heart of international politics, so as to enable their rulers to understand what the people perceive about them in view of the importance of these issues in foreign policy formulation. Fortunately, some Sri Lankan higher educational institutions in the teaching and researching of International Relations and related think tanks have already taken on these tasks, raising the possibility of the country having a better informed public on these questions.
One of these organizations is the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Colombo, (LKI), which, on November 15th conducted its second LKI Foreign Policy Forum titled: ‘Israel-Palestine Conflict and its Ramifications: Global Perspectives’, at its auditorium. It proved a thought-provoking forum which provided the lively audience with much to think about with regard to the tumultuous Middle East conflict, which has taken a turn for the worse since October 7th.
Outlining some key developments in his introductory address, the LKI’s Executive Director Amb. Ravinatha Aryasinha said, among other things: ‘Five weeks into the conflict, there is failure on the part of the UN Security Council to act, inability of the Human Rights Council to call a special session on the issue and we have seen how the recent UN General Assembly vote exposed double standards in the application of universal humanitarian and human rights norms.’
The UNSC session referred to at the beginning of this column which exposed the inability of the major powers to give an unreserved ‘Yes’ to the rendering of emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of the Gaza, substantiated Amb. Aryasinha’s pronouncements. The permanent members in particular of the UNSC are not of one accord on the gut issues in the conflict and as long as this is so, UNSC ‘paralysis’ cannot be avoided on key questions.
More so why the crucial issue of UN reform must be revived and resolved. Clearly, the ‘Big Five’ of the UNSC are no longer fully representative of the international community and as long as this is so they could not be expected to be sufficiently sensitive to issues of profound importance to the world community.
The LKI forum also had as one of its panelists Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya. He said that Sri Lanka condemns the attacks of Oct. 7th and recognizes the right of Israel to defend itself. Giving evidence of Sri Lanka’s balanced perceptions on the conflict, Balasuriya added: ‘The government recognizes the disproportionality of the Israeli response to these attacks and supports the calls for a ceasefire in the region to protect the people of Israel and those in the Palestinian territories.’
This columnist could not help but reflect that while the world is almost fully cognizant of Palestine’s right to full statehood, and very rightly so, Israel’s right to exist and enjoy continued statehood unhampered must be acknowledged completely by the international community as well. Until these conditions are met even a semblance of peace is unlikely to descend on the Middle East. Meanwhile, the craving on the part of some to ‘bomb Israel out of existence’ needs to be declared a maniac’s fantasy.
Speaking as a panelist at the forum, Head of the Delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sri Lanka Ms. Severine Chappaz, pointed to the vital importance of applying international humanitarian law to the conflict in question. There is no doubt that such laws are the ‘most complete and practical tool to ensure the protection of civilians and they must be upheld to pave the way for a de-escalation of conflict.’
The application of international humanitarian law is of fundamental importance to the Middle East and other war zones of the world. Rendering conflicting sides highly sensitive to such a legal regime continues to be a foremost challenge for the world.
South African High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Sandile Edwin Schalk, speaking as a panelist, quite rightly expressed profound concern over the inability of multilateral organizations to uphold international humanitarian law in the Gaza, on account of mainly power politics. Among the thought provoking points raised by H.C. Schalk were the following: ‘Does an occupying force (Israel), have a right to defence?’; ‘The UN system has failed to adapt to changing global demographies and over-represents the historically influential states that created it’; ‘Apartheid was a system that normalized criminal behavior and criminalized normal behaviour’.
The LKI forum, thus, did adequate justice to the complex and sensitive issues in international politics the Israel-Hamas war has surfaced. The forum sufficiently indicated, among other things, that the world is witnessing a civilizational crisis in the Middle East right now. That is, man is being compelled to re-explore his true identity. Do humans revere life? Are they essentially peace-makers? These are two prime takeaways from the forum that need to be urgently pondered on by humanity.