Failing Palestine Will Seal Collapse of World Order

A grim, haunting question looms: Can you think of any abyss of human cruelty, any darker pit of evil, that the Palestinians have not yet experienced?

We can all remember the comforting safety of being cradled in our mother's embrace as a child. But for Palestinian mothers, that most basic act of providing solace to one's terrified child is torn from their grasp.

The United Nations Security Council's inaction over the catastrophic situation in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories is a damning indictment of its ability to uphold the principles upon which it was founded. As the humanitarian crisis escalates to levels of unspeakable horrors, the Council remains paralyzed in its familiar cycle of endless talk and zero action - allowing a genocide to unfold with shameful impunity.

The facts are undeniable: Gaza is an open-air kill zone, where innocent civilians are trapped in a man-made hell of unimaginable proportions. The occupying power's relentless bombing campaign has long abandoned any semblance of proportionality, waging an unrelenting war against the very existence of the Palestinian people.

We have witnessed marked UN vehicles being shot at, humanitarian operations forced to the "uppermost periphery of risk," and a civilian population crushed under the weight of deprivation. Basic rights, like accessing food, medicine, and safety, have become far away memories in this besieged strip of land.

All Imaginable Cruelties Have Been Unleashed Upon the Palestinians

The constant evacuation orders rain down without mercy, stripping Palestinians of even the most basic dignity. Families are condemned to endure squalid living conditions that have allowed long-eradicated diseases like polio to resurface, threatening the very lives of children throughout the region. Tens of thousands of children have disappeared as worries mount over sexual abuse and human trafficking, considering that rape has become seen as a legitimate form of torture among the Israeli populace. Thousands of Palestinians are held in torture and rape facilities without charge - the last vestiges of humanity torn away. The list of atrocities is boundless.

A dark but confronting question looms: Can you think of any abyss of human cruelty, any darker pit of evil, that the Palestinians have not yet experienced? The answer most probable is: No. Murdering a child? Raping of men, women and children? Sniping infants? Tying up naked innocents to metal beds for torture? Erasing entire families from the face of the earth? Burning toddlers alive? Starving people? Hanging pregnant women? Flattening population centers to rubble? Beheading babies? Spreading polio and other infectious diseases? Condemning four-year-old orphans to eating grass and animal feed? There is no more horrendous fate to ponder that has not already been inflicted upon the Palestinians under the Israeli onslaught.

Yet, the world remains deaf to these cries, turning a blind eye to this humanitarian apocalypse.

Failure to Act will Collapse the Global Order

The desire for justice and accountability is innate in every human being, yet the UN Security Council fails to act decisively to halt this genocidal campaign and uphold justice and accountability. The consequences will reverberate far beyond the region. Its credibility and moral authority will disintegrate completely, cementing its perception as a mere imperial tool of Western powers that turns a deaf ear to the voices and suffering of societies across the world.

Nations weary of being disregarded will abandon the UN in droves, rendering it an increasingly hollow shell as major powers flout its edicts and the Western-led rules-based international system crumbles. The global order predicated on ‘unity, cooperation, and adherence to human rights and international law’ will unravel. The escalating cycle of impunity will embolden other rogue actors to operate outside the boundaries of civilized norms.

What message does it send to the world if an institution established in the ashes of war to uphold human dignity cannot rouse itself to action in the face of one of the most egregious, calculated and protracted genocides in modern human history? Its failure to act will not just condemn the Palestinian people to unspeakable fates - it will undermine the very idea of a global community, accelerating our regression into anarchy and the "might makes right" global disorder of the past.

Palestine is a Glimpse Into the Future of Our Children

I have written it before: if we fail to halt this unspeakable crime unfolding before our eyes, the fate that has befallen the Palestinians will be visited upon our own children.

The time for dithering is over. By implementing an immediate ceasefire, securing humanitarian access, ensuring accountability, and charting a path to a just resolution, the Council can halt both the physical and moral death spirals gathering momentum. This is its last chance to uphold its purpose as a force for human rights and prevention of historical atrocities.

Inaction, however, will not just see the Council's own collapse into irrelevance as a credible institution - it will be a catalyst for unraveling the broader global order and abandoning humanity's aspirations for a civilized world of shared values and collective security. The consequences of allowing this genocidal campaign to continue unabated are too devastating to ponder, both for the Palestinian people, and for the world which will descend further into chaos.

The UN has an urgent choice to make. It can continue down this path of complicity, enabling one of the most horrendous crimes in human history to unfold before our very eyes. Or, It can take urgent and decisive action to stop it. If it fails to act, however, history will judge it harshly, and the collapse of the United Nations, and in extension the global order, will be inevitable.

- Karim