1/10 The Gaza conflict reveals a troubling reality: Western diplomats invoke "international law" selectively, creating rules that don't exist elsewhere while extending the suffering they aim to prevent. Let's explore the double standards. 🧵
2/10 European leaders insist Israel must allow all aid in, keep Gaza's borders unchanged, and prevent Palestinians from leaving. They call these "legal requirements" - but these rules don't actually exist in international law.
3/10 Geneva Convention Article 23 explicitly permits restricting aid when diversion concerns exist. Evidence shows Hamas systematically seizes humanitarian supplies to fund its war machine - only facing financial strain when these diversions were blocked.
4/10 Claims about Israel as an "occupying power" misapply the Hague Convention definition requiring "established and exercised authority." This framework cannot apply where Hamas operated armed battalions, stockpiled weapons, and held hostages for over a year.
5/10 The inconsistency is striking - In Syria and Ukraine conflicts, humanitarian efforts focused on helping civilians escape war zones. In Gaza, diplomatic pressure demands civilians remain in active combat areas - contradicting standard practice.
6/10 The territorial argument similarly lacks legal basis. The Gaza boundary represents a 1949 armistice line explicitly not intended as a "political or territorial boundary" under the agreement's own terms.
7/10 By insisting Hamas cannot lose territory following a war it initiated, diplomats have created an unprecedented standard that removes crucial leverage for ending the conflict and securing hostage release.
8/10 These diplomatic positions have directly extended hostage captivity, prolonged military operations, and trapped civilians in a war zone where the governing authority politically benefits from their hardship.
9/10 The impact goes beyond hypocrisy , these invented requirements actively undermine the humanitarian objectives they claim to support, creating conditions for greater suffering on all sides.
10/10 A durable peace requires consistent application of international law rather than selectively invented standards. When we create special rules for one conflict, we risk breaking the very system designed to limit war's brutality.
Photos credit: Getty Images, BBC, AP, Jewish Virtual Llibrary.
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