R2P RIP; its grave is in Gaza

A malnourished 2-year-old Palestinian boy sits with his brothers at their family’s damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on Wednesday. AFP

Responsibility to protect—protect whom? The vulnerable, facing imminent death. We had heard the term before. It was once fashionable in political discourse to invoke the concept—stylishly abbreviated as R2P—when powers, both big and not so big, cited it to justify interventions ostensibly on humanitarian grounds. To be seen as benevolent, after all, they thought, would enhance their international standing as do-gooders.
When did we last hear a nation invoke R2P? The answer eludes us—especially if R2P is defined by a genuine intent, solely rooted in humanitarian grounds, free from any geopolitical ulterior motives. The term remains vulnerable to abuse by big powers with geopolitical agendas. The last time the hallowed R2P principle was publicly and shamelessly politicised and abused to serve geopolitical objectives was when the Western military alliance, NATO, intervened militarily to oust Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya. His crime: he sought to liberate African nations from the Western neocolonial yoke. 
But the crisis in Gaza was a million times more catastrophic than the so-called and almost non-existent humanitarian crisis the West politicised to justify its military intervention in Libya.
When, in Gaza, one in three people has not eaten a meal in over three days, with Al Jazeera reporting recently 19 malnutrition-linked deaths in one day, where are the Western leaders who parade themselves as paragons of virtue and speak so highly of their values, which they proudly claim are rooted in humanitarianism? The waning wails of starving Gaza children may not reach the ears of Western leaders, but the images and video footage we see daily on Al Jazeera—and selectively, on Western television channels—are surely loud and powerful enough to awaken these leaders, as they trudge, zombie-like, along a path shaped by the sinister influence of Zionism.
On Wednesday, more than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza, while the United States sent its top envoy to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid corridor—in yet another mission that is unlikely to end the Palestinian suffering.
Forget morally bankrupt Donald Trump—a friend of paedophile and VIP sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But what about other Western leaders? Britain’s Keir Starmer, Canada’s Mark Carney, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni? Are they equally morally bankrupt?
Perhaps, for the Palestinian in Gaza, death by starvation is more honourable than being fed by world leaders steeped in repugnant immorality and sanctimonious hypocrisy.
With the death of each Palestinian child in Gaza, it becomes increasingly clear that world leaders will not invoke R2P for a humanitarian intervention. Their silence amounts to complicity in the ongoing genocide that Israel has been carrying out since October 7, 2023, one may say. But some of these countries are not silent bystanders. By supplying weapons to Israel, sharing intelligence, and extending political support at global forums, they have become active and heartless participants in the genocide. So much for their Western values. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the Western leaders’ bloodied hand.
Against their complicity by silence or active participation in the genocide, a call-to-conscience appeal comes from Malaysia, part of the distant Orient the West once denigrated as frontiers of barbarism.
In an impassioned appeal posted on X on Tuesday, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said:
“The tragedy unfolding in Gaza is a test of our shared humanity. Entire families are being murdered. Children—even babies—have been killed. Others are wasting away from hunger. This appalling disregard for human life and dignity must end, for it is a violation of the most basic moral code.
“Malaysia calls on all world leaders to act with urgency. Every government that believes in international law, every nation that claims to value human life, must speak with one voice. 
“In this regard, I urge all those with influence over Israel to find the courage to act decisively. I especially appeal to US President Donald Trump to use that influence to press for an immediate end to the killing, stop the indiscriminate bombings, and ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those in need without obstruction.
“This is the hour for moral leadership. This is the time to uphold the values we claim to defend.
“Malaysia stands ready to work with all nations—North and South, East and West—to bring relief to Gaza and to restore the basic principles of humanity. Let us not be remembered as those who stood by. Let us be guided by our conscience, to answer suffering with compassion, and to pursue peace for the sake of our humanity.”
By yesterday, the English version of the post had received nearly a million views on X and around 700 replies—but none from any Western leader. Typically, leaders do not respond to social media posts. It remains unclear whether Ibrahim personally sent his appeal to each world leader or received any replies.
Leave aside the pro-Israeli Western leaders, who lack the courage to confront the powerful Israeli lobbies that control politicians in their countries. But what about the leaders of Arab and Islamic countries—those situated in the school atlas less than a finger’s length from Gaza—especially those who have pledged trillions of dollars to Trump and those who possess significant military strength?
From an Islamic perspective, humanitarian intervention is compulsory (Quran 4:75) when the oppressed cry for help. Yet in some Muslim countries, even publicly speaking about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is taboo. For them, ties with Israel and the United States appear more important than intervening on humanitarian grounds to end the suffering of their brethren in Gaza. If they lack the courage to send their militaries, should they not have leveraged their trillion-dollar deals with the US to bring about an immediate end to the worsening humanitarian crisis? Their diplomacy, at best, resembles a publicity stunt—and at worst, a damp squib.
Their hypocrisy knows no bounds when they condemn Israeli atrocities in Gaza while maintaining trade, defence, and diplomatic ties with the very entity that inhumanely uses starvation as a weapon to exterminate the Palestinian population.
With Western leaders, under pressure from Israeli lobbies, turning a deliberate blind eye to the Gaza genocide; with Arab and Muslim leaders showing more deference to Israel and the West than to the commands of Islam; with the United Nations paralysed by the United States’ inhumane use of the veto; and with the impotent Palestinian Authority in limbo—the Palestinians of Gaza, and those in the West Bank, are left to their fate: without food, including baby formula, and without adequate water or medicine.
Perhaps civil society peace activists drumming up support for the Palestinian freedom cause are the only silver lining in the dark clouds—even as they are harassed, threatened with arrest and detention, and branded with ‘terrorist’ labels. When the Butcher of Gaza is finally sated, with no more Palestinians left to kill, only those who lent their voices to Gaza can claim to be human; the rest will be humans with hearts of brutish beasts.
With a murderous Israel spurning international law with impunity—and with the fullest support of its Western allies—the R2P principle adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005 becomes another casualty. Along with the collective conscience of humanity, it now lies buried in the graveyard of Gaza.