During World War II 30,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined. A Rules-Based Order developed in the aftermath, with the United States playing a pivotal role in creating the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), along with other key institutions meant to uphold international law and protect human rights.

Israel, by comparison, in 8 months has dropped more than 75,000 tons of bombs in Gaza, causing unprecedented destruction. In May, the ICC’s chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes. The ICJ separately demanded that Israel immediately stop its offensive on Rafah. Israel responded by bombing a “safe zone” of refugee families in tents.

In a crime of perfidy (similar to Israeli forces who disguised themselves as physicians to raid Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank), the US-Israeli military entered Nuseirat Refugee Camp disguised in aid trucks as civilian refugees. The operation to rescue four Israelis killed 274 Palestinians, including three Israeli hostages, and injured 700 others. Praising the massacre, Antony Blinken stated, “We will not rest until every hostage is returned home.” 

A former State Department official admitted to this administration lacking “the same depth of feeling and empathy for the Palestinians of Gaza.” On the racial hierarchy at play, a study from MIT titled “The Enemy as Animal” found, on average, Israelis are willing to kill 575 Palestinian civilians to save one Israeli soldier.

The killing of three shirtless Israeli hostages waving white flags in December illustrates a long-standing Israeli practice of indiscriminately targeting unarmed Palestinian civilians displaying white flags. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli media reported that Israeli snipers killed seven innocent Palestinian bystanders “even though the streets were quiet and the soldiers had no cause to open fire.”

The Times of Israel reports Hamas offered to release all civilian hostages on October 9. Hostage retrieval is still securable by implementing a ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly rejected. This has never been about the hostages. 

The focus on the 100+ Israeli hostages in Gaza is not matched by attention to the estimated 10,000 Palestinians in captivity, who Minister Ben-Gvir suggested executing to combat overcrowding. Particularly disturbing is the targeting of Palestinian physicians. Numerous reports document the systematic kidnapping, rape, sexual violence, extreme torture and mutilation of Palestinians as standard procedure, often filmed by the soldiers themselves. A CNN investigation described facilities as “a paradise for medical interns” because “you do whatever you want.” In reality, systematic torture of Palestinians has been reported for decades.

Former Australian ambassador John Lander explains Rules-Based Order as ‘a set of ever-varying rules devised by the United States for the benefit of the United States and its Western allies.’ American exceptionalism, Spencer Ackerman notes, “has been on display after each U.S. veto of cease-fire resolutions.” 

In March, President Biden signed a law to limit aid if Palestinians support an ICC investigation against Israel. House Resolution 8282 was recently passed to apply US sanctions on the ICC. White House spokesman John Kirby protests ‘We did the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan!’ “We’re next!” warn Speaker Johnson and Senator Graham. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. poignantly elucidated that “the ultimate logic of racism is genocide.” Slogans such as ‘Finish them!‘ or “Finish the job!” often signed on artillery shells destined for Gaza, underscore a pervasive genocidal doctrine recurring in the history of Western colonialism. As Edward Said observed, however, “This is a unique colonialism that we’ve been subjected to where they have no use for us. The best Palestinian for them is either dead or gone.” 

With the UN adding Israel to the black list of states committing systemic violations against children, the enormous death toll (estimates of up to 200,000 deaths), and ongoing famine, Palestine is a glaring example of colonial impunity the international community claims to have transcended. Failure to uphold international humanitarian law and affirm accountability – described by Amnesty International as a “curtain call” for Rules-Based Order – carries profound and far-reaching consequences.

Aly Mohamed, MD is a gastroenterologist practicing in Santa Cruz, California.