Since October 7, 2023, a year in hell has passed. It began with the horror of the Hamas terrorist attack, which coldly executed 1,200 people in what is to date the largest massacre that Israel has experienced on its soil since 1948. To this barbarity, Netanyahu decided to respond with barbarity. Since the bombing of Gaza began, hell has descended on the Palestinians. Certainly, the tragedy did not begin on October 7, since the war, attacks, occupation and colonization have lasted for decades. But what has been happening in this region of the world over the past twelve months marks a tipping point. For the people, first. In Gaza, more than 40,000 people were killed in what the UN describes as “collective punishment”: bombings, famine, disease, forced exodus, school and health systems destroyed. No people have experienced such a humanitarian catastrophe in recent history. Benyamin Netanyahu is not seeking to eradicate Hamas, nor to free Israeli hostages: he is engaged in a personal and ideological headlong rush. The prime minister of the far-right government wants to avoid the courts that threaten him in his country as much as to destroy any chance of seeing the birth of a Palestinian state.
To give substance to his dream of Greater Israel, which is nothing other than a colonial project, he takes the risk of plunging the world into the abyss. Netanyahu tramples on all humanitarian rules which require sparing civilian populations and infrastructure during conflicts.
In the ruins of Gaza, in the rubble of Beirut, lies international law. To knowingly flout these common laws is to expose all people in the world to the arbitrary nature of lawless wars. A year ago, Israeli leaders thought they had only a few weeks before public opinion and governments would speak out against their blind vengeance. But Israel enjoys total impunity. Neither France, nor Europe, nor the United States have set limits to stop the massacre. Arms deliveries continue. The word is strong to denounce the unacceptable, the arm is weak to prevent it from happening.
This culpable passivity, this complicity, is encouraged by intellectual and media hype justifying massacres in the name of Israel’s right “to defend itself”. The 1,200 Israeli lives taken would justify the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and, now, Lebanese. But a life is worth a life. The criminalization of solidarity with Palestine and the infamous accusations of anti-Semitism that threaten any voice critical of Israel’s policies serve as a smokescreen in the face of tragedy. They also create a disastrous mix which, ultimately, fuels anti-Semitism.
Gaza is almost completely razed and the West Bank is the scene of daily abuses by settlers supported by the army. A people is dying, the International Court of Justice warns of the risk of genocide. Where will this murderous madness end? Netanyahu may rejoice at the assassinations of Ismaël Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, but their deaths outside of any legal framework will tomorrow justify the worst atrocities in return. It is high time for the guns to be silent. The French government can and must recognize the State of Palestine as quickly as possible, and help put an end to this vicious circle.
We must never get used to war. International diplomatic action can stave off the conflagration in the region, which would have incalculable consequences… This is the only way to respect the memory of the 1,200 Israelis killed and the more than 42,000 Palestinians and Lebanese who died in a war that they didn’t want to. The only way to avoid another year in hell.
