THE world continues to witness the most horrific genocide in modern history being livestreamed from Gaza. Every global institution worth its name has spoken against Israel, but governments in the West have continued to support it, and those in the Islamic world have chosen to keep their silence. In a nutshell, the world’s response remains shamefully passive.

The question is no longer what is happening, but why the world is not acting. The answer lies in the structural failure of the United Nations and the tyranny of the veto.

The post-World War II arrangement has mutated into a shield for aggressors, and a noose around justice. In Gaza, this dysfunction is painfully clear.

This is not the first time, however, that the UN has stood by during mass atrocities. From Cambodia to Rwanda, and from Myanmar to Syria, the UN faltered big time. The only time the world community woke up and did something meaningful was during the carnage in Bosnia that was unleashed by Serb forces.

Even though the intervention came much later than it should have, it was better than the inertia we see today in the context of Gaza. War criminals, like Slobodan Miloševic, Radovan Karadžic, and the butcher of Bosnia, Gen Ratko Mladic, were brought to justice in due course of time.

So why not Palestine? Why the silence? Why does the world refuse to summon the same seriousness and moral clarity as it did in the case of Bosnia? If the world is serious about justice, it must abolish the veto, democratising the UN Security Council, empowering the UN General Assembly, and equipping international courts with binding authority, not symbolism.

But the most urgent need, indeed, is to somehow end the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We need an international intervention force deployed in Gaza and the occupied territories with the sole mission of protecting civilian lives and preventing further atrocities committed against them.

Qamer Soomro
Shikarpur

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2025