The rule of law is the fundamental principle that all individuals and institutions, including the government, are equally accountable to laws that are publicly known, equally enforced, and independently adjudicated
Imagine if Xi Jinping
were to say
“I support starving the Democratic Progressive party and the people of Taiwan”.
The western world would recoil in horror
Boycotts would be imposed, trade suspended
outrage and approbation expressed.
When Ben Gvir says “I support starving Hamas in Gaza”
there is silence
Imagine if Kim Jong Un
were to say
South Korea will be “totally destroyed”
it’s population “concentrated in a small area so that they [the South Koreans] will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in South Korea, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places”.
North Korea would be branded an axis of evil
a state sponsor of terrorism
ostracised and excluded from intercourse with
“civilised” nations.
Yet, when Smotrich uses these words
about Gaza and Palestinians
there is barely a ripple of disquiet
Imagine if Vladimir Putin
were to say
“Our goal is to completely eliminate any possibility of a Ukrainian State”?
Trump would say “you will see things happen”
arms would be sent to defend Ukraine
demands would be made, ultimatums issued
sanctions imposed
covert operations commenced
Imagine if Ahmad al-Sharaa
were to say
“The time has come to annex Israel.”
whilst presenting a map
with 82% of Israel claimed as Syrian and stating
that this was in line
with the principle of “maximum land with minimum Jews“.
Trump may no longer call al-Sharaa
an attractive, tough guy
or shake his hand at the White House.
Global Leaders would speak as one
in outrage.
Yet when Smotrich says such things
of the Palestinian West Bank
occupied since 1967
barely a ripple of dissent is heard
and Smotrich simply proclaims
“We are no longer afraid of the word ‘occupation’”
When Zelenskyy
calls for more pressure on Russia so
“murderers do not feel impunity”
the west does not see the irony
that pleas by Palestinians
to put more pressure on Israel
to end the blockade
to stop the supply of arms
so that “murderers do not feel impunity,
are ignored
and have been since 1947
(or that in 2019, pressure was placed on the Ukraine, by withholding arms shipments, when Zelenskyy would not assist Guiliani, Barr and Trump with “evidence” to attack Biden).
Instead, the murderers are empowered
with mantra like choruses of
“Israel has a right to defend itself” and
“Remember the hostages”
even though Smotrich says that
returning the hostages is not the most important thing.
Imagine if Ali Hosseini Khamenei
were to say that supporters of Israel were
“useful idiots that are being used as tools in the hands of those who are trying to promote radical zionist ideas”?
or that the United States and Israel were “the biggest state sponsors of terror”?
Such comments would be dismissed
scoffed at as nonsense
a catalogue Iranian of sins paraded for the viewer.
But when Netanyahu, Haskel and Mattis make such comments?
Such comments are accepted without question,
championed, applauded.
Surely placing explosives in pagers might be an act of terror?
Is it just that the groups
sponsored and created by the United States
eventually turn on their master
such that such betrayal,
transition from puppet to enemy,
absolves the creator.
China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population
Myanmar’s Rohingya people experience violence, arbitrary arrests, destruction of their homes, journalists targeted and subjected to harsh prison sentences
these crimes exposed and rightly condemned.
When Israel announces plans to corral 2 million people into “humanitarian zones”
intentionally destroys housing to render Gaza City uninhabitable
announces annexation
collectively starves Gaza’s population
are these not crimes against humanity or genocide”?
Such actions are met with the collective chorus
“Israel has a right to defend itself”
no matter what Israel does,
doing as they wish
Imagine if Abu Obeida
were to declare “the main goal is to remove, once and for all, this idea of an Israeli state”?
Perhaps he has.
Mark Rubio would spit with anger
G’vir would storm temples (surrounded by security)
Obeida would be denounced and vilified.
But when Smotrich makes such statements, regarding a Palestinian State
there is fulsome support.
If Recep Taayyip Erdogan
were to call for the “elimination”
(such neutral euphemisms for murder)
of Netanyahu, Smotrich and G’vir,
as those individuals call for the elimination of other leaders
and acting upon those statements
in such manner and in such country as they wish
there would be outrage
expulsion from NATO
sanctions and censure.
When Sharren Haskel
Refers to Pro-Palestinian protestors as “naive people…falling for a lot of the propaganda of those terrorist organisations and those radical jihadist organisations”
might not those words
be modified and applied
to those who condone Israel’s actions,
so that we might call them “naïve people…falling for a lot of propaganda of the Israeli State and those radical Zionist organisations”?
If the rule of law is real
one law for all
all held to the same account, the same standard, then
We must.
The rule of law holds,
we are told by those who write such laws,
that all are equally accountable,
that laws are equally enforced,
just as the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that
“All men are created equal”.
Both are lies
lies made possible by blind prejudice
and hypocrisy
and by the interests of those whom the lies serve.
Haile Selassie was correct, that we must “persuade men that their salvation rests in the subordination of national and local interests to the interests of humanity”
“that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;
that until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
that until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes;
that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;
that until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained”
As sister Sinead sang,
she, who like Marley,
put Selaisse’s words to music,
“Everyone can see what’s going on
They laugh ‘cause they know they’re untouchable
Not because what I said was wrong”
