When the U.S. Acts to Dismantle the Existing International Order

Author: Talal Awkal

While an unprecedented global wave of condemnation sweeps the world over the campaign of extermination and starvation waged by the occupying power for 23 months to achieve opaque objectives — a campaign driven by those who do not credit the warnings of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister accused of genocidal crimes, and carried out with full U.S. partnership — the United States stands almost alone in protecting and defending Israel, seemingly without regard for the consequences this will have for the international order.
The U.S. administration has issued an executive decision to subject three Palestinian human rights organisations — Al-Haq, Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights — to sanctions, after similar measures were taken against other Palestinian institutions. The accusation is that these organisations provided testimony and evidence to the International Criminal Court and contributed to efforts to hold perpetrators of Israeli war crimes accountable.
The ICC has itself faced threats, pressure and sanctions from the U.S. administration after Israel failed to influence the court’s proceedings.
U.S. actions, including sanctions targeting international justice institutions and human rights organisations, form part of a system that complements the occupying power’s long-standing efforts to silence witnesses and suppress voices that adhere to law, rights and United Nations mechanisms, and that expose the hypocrisy of those who wage wars in the name of protecting human rights, democracy and peaceful struggle.
The occupying power is conducting a systematic campaign to eliminate Palestinian journalists: the number it has assassinated has exceeded 250 — far more than the numbers of journalists killed in the two world wars and other conflicts elsewhere.
At the same time, the Israeli authorities block foreign journalists and media outlets from entering to cover the massacres, bar any international investigation committees or solidarity delegations, while its colonial judicial system conceals the crimes and does not even bother to justify them.
The campaign to repress witnesses and testimony is tied to the nature, objectives and theatre of Israel’s brutal war on the Palestinian people across historical Palestine, including the razing of civic institutions and civil society organisations.
The current U.S. and Israeli administrations do not seem to grasp the implications of these policies, which target the international system — and even the international order over which the United States presides — not to mention the repercussions for both countries.
Thomas Friedman, the American Jewish journalist and writer known for his support of Israel, warned that U.S. policy threatens to bring the country to ruin, and that the war Israel is waging against the Palestinians is in effect a war against itself, putting its existence at risk.
At a time when some speak of the global order entering a phase of change toward a multipolar system, especially after the strong, comprehensive messages from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, U.S. policies are in practice making a real contribution to such a shift.
A powerful rival pole has emerged on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Second World War — one with all the elements of competition and superiority that threatens America’s position — yet this does not appear to prompt the U.S. administration to rethink its course; President Donald Trump dismisses what is happening as a conspiracy against his country.
By pursuing withdrawals from the Paris Agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, the World Health Organization, from support for UNRWA, UNESCO and international human rights institutions, the U.S. has effectively ceded ground to the advance of other powers and is contributing to the erosion of the international system over which it once presided.
When Mr. Trump breaches the Headquarters Agreement and blocks the Palestinian delegation from obtaining visas to participate in United Nations General Assembly meetings, and threatens to impose restrictions on delegations from Zimbabwe, Sudan, Brazil and Iran, he contributes to the dismantling of the existing international order.
When the United States refuses to participate in the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, it undermines one of the core pillars of the United Nations system.
And when it pursues a blatantly hypocritical policy marked by double standards and wages campaigns against human rights organisations and the institutions that work in this field, it helps destroy what remains of the system of values, accelerating the collapse of the current international order.
The United States is moving toward deepening its isolation, alongside Israel, because of a policy of arrogance and the use of force against allies as well as adversaries, a course that threatens not only its reputation and standing but also the unity and stability of both countries.
The present U.S. administration is not waging its wars solely against the Palestinian presence in the occupied territories; it continues to repress domestic freedoms and pursues supporters of the Palestinian cause, including wide segments of American Jews, U.S. universities and national institutions.
Although a number of U.S. organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly condemned the criminal campaign of extermination and starvation carried out by Israel against the Palestinians, they have been constrained in their work and had their voices suppressed.
Inside Israel, reports from B’Tselem and the Adalah organisation confirm that the occupying power has committed war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing, yet they have not been subject to U.S. sanctions and instead face obstruction from Netanyahu’s fascist government that hampers their work.
But as the Palestinians persist, despite all attempts to repress and silence witnesses, they will continue their struggle to defend human rights and their national rights, and to pursue and hold accountable the perpetrators of these barbaric war crimes.