"Israel’s" brutal war on Gaza has displaced over 260,000 Palestinians, flattened mosques, and killed over 1,700 innocent Palestinians. Hypocritical Western nations that often claim the mantle of peace refuse to confront the illegal occupation and hold widespread brutality to account.

Palestine’s resistance to systemic Israeli oppression continues to expose the occupation’s dehumanization of indigenous civilians. Legions of Palestinians are well within their rights to refuse an occupation footprint on sovereign lands, showing the mirror to the West.

The Israeli occupation was stunned by the strategy and outcome of the October 7 attacks, and its war of vengeance on Gaza proves Palestine’s point: that the world’s most belligerent military occupation puts a premium on atrocities in Gaza and against the will of the Palestinian people. As a band of Western nations rush to support Israel’s criminal disregard for international law, the world deserves a thorough accounting of Israeli war crimes in plain sight.

First, "Israel’s" move to cut off electricity, food, and fuel supplies to Gaza is a blatant war crime. It qualifies as a punitive measure against besieged Palestinians, and renders the apartheid regime guilty through “unlawful collective punishment.” The occupation shows no signs of dialing down its indiscriminate attacks against civilians and is thoroughly mistaken to presume that such violent atrocities will go unnoticed. 

Targeting the survival of a besieged population confirms that "Israel" wants the world to help justify its colonizing gaze on Palestinian lands. But the further "Israel" moves in this direction, the more it will empower Palestine’s undying resistance to respond with twice the force. "This [Israeli action] risks seriously compounding the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the capacity of medical facilities to operate, especially in light of increasing numbers of injured," said United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk.

Second, "Israel" has made no secret of using prohibited weapons to push for indiscriminate killings in Gaza. Early reports suggest the use of bunker-buster bombs. Their use in tunnels that serve the livelihoods of Palestinian civilians makes clear that this is the occupation’s targeted attempt to endanger civilian neighborhoods. That is a context that strictly prohibits buster bombs under international humanitarian law. 

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This is the glaring reality that Western countries want the world to dismiss. Look no further than U.S. President Joe Biden’s prejudiced remarks on "Israel’s" war, effectively sponsoring its continuity by refusing to address the root cause of the current escalations. Washington and its allies show no signs of underscoring the merits of Palestine’s unmitigated right to self-defense, which is brazenly targeted through prohibited weaponry. 

Rather, leaders of the United Kingdom, the US, France, Germany, and Italy released a pro-occupation joint statement. The consensus signaled unwarranted facilitation of Israeli atrocities and overlooked decades of rights encroachment, military repression, and settlements at the expense of Palestinian freedoms. The Geneva Conventions make it abundantly clear that heavy bombs like bunker busters could only be used in "extreme circumstance of self-defense.” "Israel’s' use of prohibited weapons against besieged Palestinians reveals the brazen Western double standard on war crimes, and their desire to support a narrative of immunity for the longest belligerent occupation in modern history. Self-defense is the lifeblood of Palestine’s admirable resistance.

The oppressed can never be weakened by any measure, and the Israeli occupation’s announcement of a “full siege” of Gaza is a further admission of cowardice and illegality. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights put it, endangering “the lives of civilians” through sieges is banned under international humanitarian law. Such a move is unquestionably tantamount to a war crime.

Additional war crimes, such as the brazen killings of Palestinian journalists, confirm that the occupation is squarely responsible for all the consequences that arise out of its state-sponsored belligerence. Western nations love to step up rhetoric on press freedoms as they see fit, but now present deaf ears to fatal assaults and indiscriminate killings of Palestinian journalists in plain sight.

Occupation attempts to crush accountability for celebrated Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh are a case in point that speaks to the climate of violence sustained by the West against all lives that have followed. Make no mistake: "Israel" and its partners’ blatant neglect of the root causes of the conflict won’t hold up, and the message from anti-occupation fighters is clear – enough is enough.

The West is also unqualified to speak of freedom as this is Palestine’s own call, pure and simple. As such, self-defense and self-determination – informed by international law – will prevail, and Palestine’s right to statehood will be safeguarded on Palestine’s own terms. Heavy arms, illegal settlements, and widespread destruction of sovereign property will be met with an even firmer response from scores of Palestinians who are well within their rights to pushback against systemic apartheid.

"Israel’s" attempt to lead a pro-occupation narrative at the United Nations has already taken a beating. And as the continuity of the war suggests, there is zero symmetry between an occupation that is empowered by war crimes and a population that resists injustice with ferocity.