As we mark the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack and the beginning of Israel’s asymmetrical response, we have to recognize Western countries’ hypocrisy on the issue. Apparently, no amount of Israeli violence justifies any Palestinian response, but any Palestinian violence justifies even a brutal and unlawful response by one of the world’s most powerful armies.
Our so-called “rules-based international order” was always suspect and has now clearly failed. The double standard is glaring. Anyone we deem to be allies or “in our camp” are not bound by law or morality, while we swiftly label those who resist “terrorists.” The latter’s right to protest or even exist is stripped away.
Institutions mandated to uphold justice, democracy, and human rights have collapsed under the weight of politics and propaganda. As Indian writer Pankaj Mishra observes, Israeli exceptionalism is “dynamiting the edifice of global norms built after 1945.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell remarked that Gaza has become a “graveyard for the many of the most important principles of humanitarian law.” It may soon become the graveyard of Western ideals themselves.
Most Western governments have chosen power over principle. Israeli actions in Gaza over the past year have included killing tens of thousands of civilians (Oxfam reports more women and children have been killed in Gaza than any other recent conflict in a single year), destroying or damaging 84 percent of the health care facilities (as of June 2024), reducing all 12 universities and much of the infrastructure to rubble, and disregarding international law. Western governments either ignore or justify these abuses under the banner of Israeli self-defense, even as the war now extends to Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran. Blind acceptance of policies such as “escalating to deescalate” reflects a disturbing turn toward tribalism and blatant disregard of solutions based on international law. The absurdity is stark: Laws in 38 U.S. states criminalize boycotts of Israeli companies, yet no such restrictions exist for boycotting domestic firms.
The media, another pillar of democracy, has long framed the conflict in ways that dehumanize Palestinians. Reports tend to obscure the reality on the ground, portraying Palestinians as accidental casualties rather than victims of an unprecedented military onslaught. The language we see in headlines matters: Israelis are “killed,” while Palestinians simply “die.” Israelis are “kidnapped,” while Palestinians, including children, are “detained.” These narratives stifle honest discussion and feed propaganda. Pro-Palestinian voices are rarely heard, and no one demands freedom of the press even as more than 127 journalists have been killed and reporters are barred from entering Gaza. Israel remains the “only democracy” in the Middle East, even as it bans and kills journalists in what the Committee to Protect Journalists calls the worst attacks on the press on record.
Universities—another cornerstone of liberal society—have also faltered. Pro-Palestinian voices are routinely silenced or criminalized. Campus crackdowns have escalated to a full-blown crisis. “This isn’t about student safety, this is about silencing dissent,” says Maura Finkelstein. “We are witnessing a new McCarthyism.” A Jewish anthropology professor, Finkelstein was fired by Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania for reposting a Palestinian poet’s call to reject Zionist ideology.
Finkelstein’s firing highlights a troubling trend: the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. If criticizing Zionism is to be deemed antisemitic, then opposing Islamism should be considered Islamophobic—yet it is not. Religious and political ideologies must remain open to scrutiny and debate by their very nature. Suppressing discourse undermines free expression and intellectual rigor in democratic societies.
People comfort mourners reacting by the shrouded bodies of victims killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, at the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on October 2, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas.
OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP/Getty Images
Even so, jurisdictions are rushing to pass antisemitism laws and policies that trample on free speech rights and specifically target Jews who oppose Israeli policies. In a UCLA Law Review article titled “Defending Jews From The Definition of Antisemitism,” Itamar Mann and Lihi Yona, of the University of Haifa and Columbia University respectively, argue that this conflation is not only misguided but also discriminatory against Jews who dissent from Israeli policies.
Another casualty of this conflict is the two-state solution. The brutal onslaught on Gaza, combined with the green light given to settlers in the West Bank, has all but ensured its demise, as veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has pointed out. With nearly 800,000 illegal settlers in the occupied territories, with occupied properties even being sold in Canada and the U.S., the possibility of relocation is slim. No Israeli government will dare to remove them.
Despite these setbacks, there are glimmers of hope. There are still some true defenders of human rights in Western countries—the students, activists, Palestinians, and Jewish allies who have risked their careers and safety to stand up for justice. Their advocacy—despite arrests, intimidation, and backlash—reminds us of the values Western liberals once championed, values they still uphold outside the context of Palestine.
Grassroots activism is gaining strength, with divestment calls and boycotts growing in momentum, and more people fighting back. Palestinian resilience in the face of unimaginable suffering continues to inspire, as does the growing solidarity among Jewish voices rejecting the occupation. As University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer bluntly stated, “The truth is you wouldn’t have Hamas, and you wouldn’t have a problem if there was no occupation.”
It is time for Western institutions to confront their failures. Liberalism may have lost its way, but the people have not. The courage and resilience displayed by those standing up for justice in Gaza embody true Western ideals. The only path forward is a commitment to human rights and justice for all, regardless of ethnicity or religion.
Gaza has laid bare the moral bankruptcy of the current world order, and it is up to us to salvage what remains.
Faisal Kutty is a lawyer, law professor, and frequent contributor to The Toronto Star.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
