Responsibility to Protect - but Whom?
I heard the news about the kidnapping of the Freedom Flotilla by Israeli forces. Predictable, isn’t it? Now the question arises: what’s next? Will we protest even more that a symbolic humanitarian act was stopped? It was clear that a small boat carrying a bit of food and medicine, with 12 activists, some of whom celebrities, had only a symbolic and mobilizing purpose.
Forgive me if I sound cynical, but if global public opinion wasn’t awakened and mobilized by the death of over 50,000 children and the daily scenes of genocide, why would Greta and the others have a different effect?
What has hurt the most during these 19 months has been the complicity of our governments and even the acceptance of the genocide as “normal” by the majority of ordinary people.
Let me remind you that in 1999 NATO bombed a country without Security Council authorization over an alleged genocide in Kosovo. And it remained unpunished for all the crimes against civilian targets in the name of defending other civilians. Later they came up with the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect—R2P. Why? So they could intervene wherever they wanted, supposedly to protect civilians from their own governments!
The Palestinian suffering is old, it has lasted so long, uncountable people have died—and no one has even considered bombing Israel. Why? Because the painful truth is that not all lives have the same value and importance. And Israel is their ally!
That’s why I am now both angry and cynical about this act of celebrity diplomacy. If Tel Aviv doesn’t care about a single Palestinian baby, why does everyone think that the threat to Greta’s life is something unheard of and outrageous?
Knowing the methods of the Israeli forces, they will use terror against the activists just to demonstrate how they will act in any similar future case. And then they’ll release them. We’ll sympathize with them, show solidarity, and applaud their courage.
But Palestinian children will keep dying from bombs, disease, hunger, and thirst.
What’s needed is a new, organized international action, including sanctions against Israel—including coercion as well. Because, after all, don’t we have the “responsibility to protect”?
But I guess now we’ll all care about the fate of the flotilla activists. Others will keep dying without being famous or known.
Sorry, but I am desperate. The enemy of the people (we the people) and the Palestinians, of the humanity, is at home.
Greta gas helped focus more mass media attention on Gaza in a week than the millions of us who have protested weekly for the past 20 months. Sad, no doubt, even shocking. But effective, and I thank her for being on the right side and against all the political leaders still supporting genocide. Her participation will make it a little harder for them, whatever the Israelis decide to do.
I salute the courage of Greta and the others on board the Madleen- including Rima Hassan, French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament, very well known in France-- as I salute your postings, Biljana, and everyone who fights against the colossal stupidity and ghastly criminality engulfing the world. We all should do ALL WE CAN for Gaza, but also to stop the madness of re-arming Europe and fueling warmongers in Ukraine and Sudan and assassins in DRC and serial liars in mainstream media... Incidentally, I am president of a small Swiss foundation that attributed in 2024 an award to Madleen (the woman from Gaza after whom Greta's boat is named), and to four other great persons from Gaza, inspiring examples of community solidarity (three of whom already assassinated by Israel). You can read here about them here: https://www.pkfeyerabend.org/en/2024/09/16/le-prix-paul-k-feyerabend-2024-a-la-solidarite-a-gaza-cinq-exemples-de-solidarite-humaine-a-gaza-qui-devraient-inspirer-le-monde-entier/ The Foundation is already paying for it, as the Swiss banks unilaterally closed our bank accounts.