521
submitted 5 months ago by Linkerbaan@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Video footage broadcast Wednesday by Al Jazeera shows Israeli soldiers gunning down two Palestinians on the coast of northern Gaza, even as one of them waves what appears to be a piece of white fabric. The video then shows Israeli soldiers burying the bodies with a bulldozer.

Richard Falk, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, toldAl Jazeera that the footage provides "vivid confirmation of continuing Israeli atrocities" and spotlights the "unambiguous character of Israeli atrocities that are being carried out on a daily basis."

"The eyes and ears of the world have been assaulted in real-time by this form of genocidal behavior," said Falk. "It is a shocking reality that there has been no adverse reaction from the liberal democracies in the West. It is a shameful moment."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

“It is a shocking reality that there has been no adverse reaction from the liberal democracies in the West.

Not that shocking, really. Liberalism would be self-determination everywhere, not the west protecting the world and instituting its own values. If someone somewhere else wants to operate under a different set of values where human life is not considered important, a liberal does not go over there and fix them.

Liberalism is not inherently "good", it's inherently hands-off. Like the Swiss. This is partly why its become somewhat out-dated as an ideology post-WW2. Expecting someone who believes in liberty to control the fates of lands and peoples not their own is misunderstanding it though. That's not liberty, it's the spreading exertion of power and influence--the opposite of liberty.

Liberty doesn't defend anything except itself. This is the root of US isolationism tendencies, and why hating the UN is so common here.

[-] archomrade@midwest.social 18 points 5 months ago

Liberalism is not inherently “good”, it’s inherently hands-off

It is absolutely not 'hands-off', it just denies the existence of externalized power structures inherent in capital and neo-colonialism and uses them to exert influence instead of (or in addition to, rather) the old imperialist tools of direct violence. It hides behind the rhetoric of self-determination while exerting its corrupting influence through capital and soft-power.

Liberalism is a delusion of neutrality and a scourge to liberty everywhere.

[-] Carrolade@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

No, that's just communist ideology trying to demonize everything that isn't itself.

Actual liberty does not inherently guarantee freedom from all oppression, as that would be an institution from a higher authority. It gives a certain liberty to oppress, which is why it so often exists hand-in-hand with capitalism. To do otherwise would require some form of authority to prevent oppression, which contradicts the core idea.

This is another facet of the post-WW2 reasons it has become somewhat out-dated. Also, note, I'm talking about the core of the ideology, not its history of implementation by flawed men. Similar to how I would not try to criticize Marxist ideology by looking at everyone who has claimed to be a communist.

[-] archomrade@midwest.social 6 points 5 months ago

No, that’s just communist ideology trying to demonize everything that isn’t itself.

It's not an ideological statement to observe that liberalism abdicates the power of state governance to economic and capitalistic structures, nor is it ideological to observe that economic structures can -and do- wield just as much coercive power over individuals, states, and institutions as any state structure can.

However, asserting that "liberalism is inherently hands-off" is an ideological statement, because it pretends as if market and capital systems and structures are somehow outside of its responsibility even though those structures are central to its functioning as conceived by Locke and Hobbes.

To pretend as if the US's economic power is some kind of aberration of 'true liberalism' is just absurd, though not surprising because I doubt Hobbes or Locke could have imagined the scale of influence and domination a liberal democracy like the United States now enjoys.

load more comments (12 replies)
[-] P1r4nha@feddit.de 18 points 5 months ago

But then you can't call the US a liberal democracy in any way as they aren't hands-off at all. Time and time again they meddle in other countries' business to exert influence and power and to advance their interests.

Israel itself was created by the West as Palestine was a British colony before and the US has since given more support to Israel than they would usually grant an ally. The continuous protection (political and militaristic) makes Israel almost a vassal state of the US. This is the real reason why "liberal democracies" have not reacted much (yet, hopefully).

[-] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Before we low-key split from Pakistan, they had a similar symbiotic/parasitic relation as the US does with Israel. Seen as a good ally/possible partner diplomatically and with military utility for bases and CENTCOM power projection. And though Pakistan was never really ‘on side’ for a couple of reasons, they kept themselves under the radar and out of our ire - until we found Taliban militants regularly getting refuge and medical care over the Afghan-Pak border, and capped off with discovering Bin Laden in Pakistan.

Israel is hardly a ‘vassal’ or even protectorate. The US has significant leverage, but Israel has remained cordial with Russia and China even if that means snubbing the US - Israel refused to export anti-ship and cruise missiles to Ukraine, in deference to Chinese and Russian interests. Israel has options now to split from the US (painful as it may be) unlike in the 60/70s when the Soviets were funneling weapons to Egypt and Syria, and Israel required US support.

All that to say, Israel can (and may yet) tell the US to kick rocks again, and I don’t think the west is ready for the reality of what enforcing a ceasefire/no-fly zone would mean.

load more comments (34 replies)
[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

The classic hands off approach of sending israel weapons and money to commit Genocide with.

load more comments (4 replies)
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
521 points (93.8% liked)

World News

38573 readers
4060 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS