By Lily Janik, Staff Writer

Thirty years ago, when the Rwandan genocide happened, the world turned their backs. Now, the world is failing Gaza as well. Whether or not you believe Israel has the right to defend itself, the Geneva Convention is being violated by the Israeli Defense Forces, and who is going to enforce repercussions to these violations? The International Court of Justice is pursuing a lawsuit against Israel, but the results will take years to come out. What will be left of Gaza by then? The UN declared a ceasefire, but Israel is not complying, and who is going to enforce that ceasefire? 

The only thing we can do is sanction Israel, but, even though the United States allowed this declaration of a ceasefire to be ratified, we are still providing aid to Israel. The UN’s peacekeeping force is not heavily armed, and the UN can never really agree on what to do in these situations. This makes the UN’s enforcement powers limited, and shows that morale to enforce humanitarian laws is low. It has taken until just recently, after nearly seven months of collective punishment on Palestinians, for the UN to take a position on the war. 

Even with that position, nothing is being done. When the UN was in Rwanda and the conflict started to escalate, all foreign forces and citizens evacuated, leaving 800,000 Tutsis to die in a matter of a hundred days. Despite having reports of these numbers and clear understanding of the targeting of these killings, Washington did not consider what was happening to be a genocide until after the fact. 

Today, Israel is denying Gaza aid, bringing hundreds of thousands of people to starvation. According to various news sources, the IDF has killed more than double the amount of civilians than Hamas terrorists, and are evidently targeting hospitals, schools, places of refuge and aid deliveries. Despite the clear intent of these actions, Washington again turns their backs– hopefully not for much longer. If you are hesitant to use the word genocide, consider what Israel would do differently if Hamas was in Israel amidst Isrealis.