In this photo shows the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen logo at a Palestinian camp in Rafah. File/AFP

Annie Besant (1843-1933) demonstrated the importance of high profile Western involvement in both the Irish and Indian struggles for self-rule.  When World War I erupted, she joined the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1917. She lived to see the emergence of the Irish Free State in 1922 but not Indian independence in 1947. Israel claimed that the attack on WCK workers was a “mistake” due to “misidentification” but this has not been taken seriously by WCK’s founder Jose Andres, a 21st century pioneer in humanitarian intervention.  He accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting the three vehicles in which the workers were travelling. There should have been no attack on the workers. They were travelling in a deconflicted area which was under Israeli control. They had notified the Israeli command of their plan to deliver food aid to an Israeli-monitored warehouse. The Israeli-inspected food parcels — donated by the UAE — had been brought to northern Gaza by three boats and a barge that had sailed from Cyprus in the Israeli-approved  maritime humanitarian corridor.

Commentators have argued this incident could be a “turning point” in Israel’s war, which could compel Tel Aviv to abide by international humanitarian law.  This forbids attacking civilians and using “starvation as a weapon” by permitting sufficient food to enter Gaza for the 2.3 million Gazans, particularly the 300,000 in the north who have had little food since January. Oxfam has said Gazan’s living in the north are surviving on 245 calories a day which amounts to 12 per cent of the recommended 2,100 calories needed for life. Without sufficient food,  children are stunted, and their brains cannot fully develop. This did not matter to Western policymakers who allowed Israel to deny food to Gazans. It took WCK deaths to concentrate Western minds on what has been happening in Gaza. US President Joe Biden was — at long last — compelled to tell Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he must stop killing Palestinian civilians and allow aid into Gaza.  If Israel ignores Biden — once again —and does not take immediate and concrete action, the US could reconsider its policy.   US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “It is very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident [and] holding those responsible.”  He said the safety of civilians is a “priority” when carrying out military strikes.  Fine words do not mean effective action, however.  What is needed is an arms embargo by the US, which supplies Israel with 69 per cent of its weaponry: F-15 warplanes, 2,000-pound bombs, 500-pound bombs, and other munitions.  Without US weapons, Israel would have to wind-down the war.

The UN Human Rights Council has belatedly demanded a ban on the provision of arms to Israel. Since the October 7th attack by Hamas, Israel has had Europe’s backing, but Finland, Luxembourg and Belgium voted for the ban and France abstained. Germany has said Israel can no longer deny Gaza aid while Poland has handed the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw a protest letter but will not expel the diplomat. Britain has said Israel has to change the way it is waging the war on Gaza but has not suspended arms sales to Israel. Nor has the US.

The accusation of double standards also applies when considering the very different treatment accorded to Russia after it invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, and Israel when it launched all out war on Gaza on October 7th, 2023. The West argued Ukraine has the right to defend itself, sanctioned Russia and poured arms and financial aid into Ukraine. The West also contended Israel has the right to defend itself and poured weapons into Israel enabling it to kill and wound 107,000 Gazans and devastate the narrow coastal strip. No sanctions have been imposed on Israel.

International legal bodies, established largely to protect civilians from oppression and persecution during war, have not been even-handed when dealing with Ukrainians who have been independent since 1991 and stateless Palestinians. Two days after the Russian invasion, Ukraine submitted a case to the international Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Russia of genocide.  On March 16th, 2022, the ICJ ruled that Russia must “immediately suspend the military operations” in Ukraine, until the court reaches its decision on the case.  Russia has ignored the ICJ order.

On March 17th, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for allegedly illegally transferring to Russia children from areas Russia occupied in Ukraine.  He faces arrest if he visits any of the 124 states which are signatories of the ICC statute. On January 16th this year following the submission by South Africa of a case charging Israel with genocide in Gaza, the ICJ ordered Israel to take measures to prevent genocidal actions as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention, but did not demand Israeli suspension of operations in Gaza.  Israel has ignored the ICJ order.

The ICC accepted Palestine as a member in 2015 and jurisdiction over the situation in Palestine in 2020. On November 17th, 2023, seven countries from the global south which are parties to statute of the court submitted a case charging Israel with genocide, but the ICC did not issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and his generals. The dragons of double standards have dominated Western handling of Palestine-Israel since the UN General Assembly adopted the 1947 resolution partitioning Palestine between native Palestinians and foreign colonists.  Since then, the dragons of double standards have consumed the post World War II laws adopted to protect the weak against the strong.