The Russian invasion of Ukraine, with potentially huge consequences for the region and the world as a whole, has unleashed a torrent of failures that pose challenges to the West's credibility, he writes. Iqbal Jassat.
For many Palestinians inside the Occupied Territory, as well as those forced to live as refugees in camps scattered throughout the Arab world, the Ukraine dilemma has revived the pain of discriminatory Western policies.
Russia's military adventure in Ukraine, with potentially huge consequences for the region and the world as a whole, has also unleashed a torrent of failures that pose challenges to the West's credibility.
Unsurprisingly, when Russian missiles hit parts of Kiev, causing fear and panic among the population of Ukraine, Western propaganda increased its hysterical rhetoric.
An incredible backlash in the way that propagandists, from the mainstream media to analysts, have suddenly started invoking international laws and conventions that prohibit illegal wars, invasions and occupations.
Dismay at hypocrisy
To many, especially among anti-war activists who protested by the millions in most Western capitals against the unjust US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the sudden change of those who despised international law rings hollow.
Can they be blamed for the expressions of outrage and dismay at the hypocrisy?
Certainly not, because surely if the global powers had heeded the demands of complying with the strict limitations of the Geneva Convention, as well as the Humanitarian Laws, millions of victims would have been spared from the wars of aggression led by the West.
So too, sovereign and independent countries would have been spared the suffering, indignity, and destruction caused by aggressive wars waged by the US and NATO in utter disregard of the UN Charter.
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In Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, heartbreaking reminders of the devastation caused by the West's illegitimate wars are evident in the rubble of cities and towns, as well as the thousands of graves that litter these regions.
Of course, the experience of Palestinians who have been on the receiving end of Israel's home demolitions, military occupation and worse reminds us of the extent of Western double standards.
All the arguments used today by critics of Putin's attack on Ukraine have been equally valid for Israel's illegal conduct, but they are absent from public discourse.
Why?
The explanation is not complex at all.
Unlike Russia today, Israel has had the benefit of staunch support, including military, financial and diplomatic support from the same US-led group of Western European nations now seeking legal protection for Ukraine.
Discrimination
Palestine, Kashmir, Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Iraq and many other countries were denied protection in contravention of international law and in defiance of countless UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.
Interestingly, however, in the midst of the buildup leading up to the Ukraine drama, Amnesty International's damning findings documented and analyzed Israel's institutionalized and systematic discrimination against Palestinians within the framework of the definition of apartheid under international law.
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An important point that Amnesty International makes is that Israel's Western allies did not heed its calls despite extensive investigation by Palestinian human rights organizations over more than two decades and leading advocacy at the UN against the illegal policies of the Zionist regime.
Instead, Palestinian organizations and human rights defenders have faced increasing Israeli repression, according to Amnesty International. The immunity Israel enjoys courtesy of the West has allowed it to violate norms and values โโof international law with impunity.
The question thus arises whether legal instruments emanating from a variety of forums, in addition to the UN Charter, are selectively invoked by Western powers to protect their own imperial interests, and whether they are deliberately denied by their client regimes? to victims of war crimes.
Exposed biases
Undoubtedly, the Western response to Russia's attack on Ukraine has exposed a series of racist prejudices and double standards compared to the way it has carried out and continues to carry out discriminatory policies towards Palestine.
For example, armed resistance is justified and supported by them in Ukraine against Putin's occupation forces, but it is prohibited and criminalized as "terrorism" in Palestine against Israel's military occupation.
The sanctions imposed on Russia never appear as leverage against Israel. Indeed, in many parts of the West, and particularly in the United States, the global BDS movement is harassed and unfairly labeled "anti-Semitic" and outlawed.
Depriving Russia of access to global financial services is in direct contrast to rewarding Israel with unlimited aid, including the most sophisticated weaponry.
To any objective analyst and student of international relations, the absence of impartiality will not only be clearly visible, but will hopefully usher in a new paradigm in the study of political science, as well as the abhorrence of its current racist application. .
- Iqbal Jassat is with Media Review Network.
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