Gaza genocide: When rules fail, Sumud must rule

Around 200 activists from 44 countries set sail on Sunday from Barcelona to challenge the siege on Gaza, deliver food and medicine, and amplify Palestinian freedom call globally

Yesterday, a second flotilla—following the first that departed Barcelona on August 31—embarked from Tunis, carrying peace warriors determined to brave arrest and imprisonment in their attempt to breach Israel’s genocidal siege of the Gaza Strip.

Their bravery resonates with the word ‘Sumud’—the name they have chosen for their flotilla. The Arabic word ‘sumud’ means steadfastness, resilience, or perseverance. In the Palestinian context—or in any situation where oppression is normalised—the word carries a deeper meaning: the struggle will continue until peace and justice are established. It also embodies the refusal to surrender, even under extreme oppression. Even if the whole world sides with the oppressor, the soul that resolves to stand against injustice is Sumud.

It is heartening to see the spirit of Sumud come alive in rallies across the globe and in a stream of social media posts supporting peace and justice for the oppressed Palestinian people—even as countries such as Germany and Britain criminalise peace and arrest activists.

To criminalise and demonise Sumud, detractors may try all they can—through pro-Zionist protests, as we witnessed last week in Colombo, and through articles by terrorism experts with questionable credentials. They are no better than the one who sold his soul for thirty shekels. But Sumud is not merely resistance—it is the soul of humanity. To strike at it is to betray what makes us human.

Detractors may ridicule Sumud activists, such as climate justice icon Greta Thunberg, human rights advocate and legendary South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, Spanish actor Eduardo Fernandez and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau.

By pointing to earlier freedom flotillas that failed to break the siege on Gaza, Zionist backers may claim that Sumud symbolises failure.

Yes, call Sumud a failure. But that failure reflects the international community’s inability to intervene—militarily if necessary—and stop the ongoing genocide. It exposes the international community’s dereliction of its duty to protect the vulnerable and the failure of major powers to fulfil their obligations under the Genocide Convention.

This failure also highlights the complicity of Western imperialist nations in the genocide—nations that arm and immorally support Israel. The failure also underscores the growing impotence of the United Nations and the international judicial system, with the International Court of Justice taking its own cool time to decide on an urgent case—apparently without recognising that delay costs lives. Not that Israel is any respecter of international law or the ICJ’s decisions. By the time the ICJ delivers its ruling on the petition filed by South Africa against Israel—some say it may be in 2027—Gaza may be nothing but a graveyard, over which the sociopaths’ Riviera could arise, with edifices of injustice but no memorial towers for genocide victims.

While the ICJ judges may have their own reasons for disregarding the principle that justice delayed is justice denied, the world’s leading genocide scholars this week came out in full throttle—declaring loudly and clearly that what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip is outright genocide.

Genocide deniers and their cronies, take note: a majority of these scholars are neither Arab nor Muslim. They are Jewish—some of them direct descendants of Holocaust victims.

In delivering their ruling, the scholars delved into the definition of genocide under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. They found that Israel’s actions in Gaza conform to the convention’s definition of genocide: “any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”

The scholars diligently studied the evidence—the destruction of homes, hospitals, and vital infrastructure such as water desalination plants and electricity grids—and took into account the siege and the denial of food and water to Palestinians.

As experts who have studied the Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Armenia, they focused on intent, which is crucial in determining genocide.

They scrutinised a tsunami of venomous and toxic utterances by Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, senior ministers, and officials.

They would not have missed Netanyahu’s description of Palestinians as Amalekites—a biblical-era people allegedly exterminated by divine command.

Nor would they have ignored then–Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s appalling remark: “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

The scholars must also have taken note of another toxic statement by extremist National Security Minister Ben Gvir: “To be clear, when they say that Hamas needs to be eliminated, it also means those who sing, those who support, and those who distribute candy. All of these are terrorists and must be eliminated.”

And this one too—from Israel’s Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi: “Now we all have one common goal—erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.”

Space would not permit me to publish all the genocidal venom spewed by leaders of the settler-colonial and apartheid entity that the West continues to whitewash as the Middle East’s only true democracy.

One of the scholars who signed the declaration asserting that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is Amos Goldberg, a professor of Holocaust history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He stated, “Yes, it is genocide. This is the intentional destruction of Palestinian society. The goal is not merely to defeat Hamas but to break the very possibility of life for Palestinians in Gaza.”

William Schabas, another scholar who signed the declaration, warned nations that support Israel’s actions in Gaza. Pointing to the United States and Germany—staunch Israeli backers, frontline genocide enablers, and all-weather arms suppliers—the Middlesex University professor of International Criminal Law stated, “To the extent that they are providing material assistance of a significant nature, they can be held responsible as accomplices to genocide.”

He was elucidating the legal position. But in reality, might is right—and however many laws exist to prevent genocide and punish its perpetrators, they apply only to weaker nations. This is realpolitik.

This is why Sumud makes sense—and why it emerges as a powerful response to state complicity in genocide. When leaders fail, people must lead. When rules fail, Sumud must rule. When rulers fail to establish a rules-based world order and lack the courage to hold Israel to account, morally conscious people must rise and demonstrate their strength through peaceful rallies and freedom flotillas. 

Amid the cry of “Free, Free Palestine”, let a thousand ships set sail on the sea of humanity, riding the waves of justice, peace, and freedom.