Gaza and Sri Lanka:Double standards of the so-called ‘International Community’

by Fr. Vimal Tirimanna

(January 07,Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mass media all over the world are replete these days with news of the continuous bombing spree of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israelites. The Israelite Defence Minister Ehud Barak, is reported as having asserted that the campaign against Hamas won’t be over soon. Israel seems to be determined to continue this offensive against Hamas terrorism till they wipe them out. In the process, however, beside a couple of deaths of the top leadership of Hamas, there have been many civilian casualties. At the time of writing these lines, more than 500 Palestinian civilian casualties are reported. The devastation to property in Gaza is said to be beyond calculation.

The ‘surprise’ of all this, however, is the deafening silence of the so-called "international community" who usually seem to be just waiting to raise their voices whenever there is even a calculated attack on LTTE terrorist hideouts in Sri Lanka, as we have seen in recent years. The main purpose of this article is to expose, in black and white, the glaring double-standards of this so-called "international community", taking the happenings in Gaza and Sri Lanka, as our concrete cases.

To begin with, a word about the so-called "international community". Who consist of this "international community"? What legitimate authority do they have to be an "international policeman"? Has this "international community" substituted the role of the well-known legitimate world authority, the United Nations? Ever since the collapse the of the ex-"super-power" the Soviet Union and its Communist allies in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and the early 1990’s, there are clear indications that the United Nations has been increasingly sidelined by the only surviving "super-power", the United States and its West European allies. The emergence of the European Union in the 1990’s as a strong political force in the new world scene also contributed to this marginalizing of the United Nations. The international conflicts since the 1990s, such as the two Gulf Wars, the war in Afghanistan and the wars among the Ex-Yugoslavian Republics were all orchestrated and finally decided upon by this latter block of nations, namely, the United States and the European Union. Strangely, with the help of the international media (more than 80% of which are controlled and manipulated by the US and her Western allies) these Western nations also succeeded in the 1990s, and especially during the first Gulf War, to coin the term "international community" and apply it to themselves. Of course, often, their traditional political allies outside their geographical area, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, were also counted as their own members, i.e., members of this so-called "international community". Unfortunately, the rest of the world, and the rest of the world media, too, almost blindly and often gladly, adopted this term without any critical thinking or analysis, so much so, today, it is taken for granted that this so-called "international community" is a legitimate authority in deciding and determining world affairs! No one even seems to be asking the vital questions: Who bestowed such powers on this "international community"? What happened to the United Nations which comprises of almost all the nations in the world? Still worse is the fact that the United Nations (including its Secretary General) seems to be not so bothered about them being marginalized (if not substituted) by this self-appointed "international community"! In the present crisis in Gaza (at least till the time of writing these lines), there is practically no mention of the UN having any role in mediating or negotiating a settlement. Among the pathetic consequences of these new developments in the last few years (in most of which the so-called "international community" was involved) is the fact that even morality seems to have been made to depend on what this "international community" decides to be moral or immoral! Might seems to have become right, power has come to be considered as always on "solid moral grounds"! This is precisely what has led the "international community" to follow so openly double standards in the world affairs of today. The two glaringly different ways of treating "the countering of terrorist attacks" or fighting them, in Gaza and in Sri Lanka, are a classic example of such double-standards.

There have been some influential people of the "international community", including some Western diplomats in Colombo, who have been maintaining a line that the situations of terrorism in Sri Lanka and elsewhere are different. Basically, this is a position that is difficult to counter, because to begin with, Sri Lanka is Sri Lanka, and Gaza is Gaza! Add to this, the fact that both these situations have their own unique historical pasts. Also, the terrorists involved in these two situations, the Hamas in Gaza and the LTTE in Sri Lanka, have their own ways of reasoning for their involvement in terrorism, i.e., for their so-called "just causes". All these main differences are facts, and one cannot be so naive to ignore them. However, the fact that terrorism whether it is in Gaza, in Sri Lanka, or in any other part of this human planet, has the same targets, i.e., innocent civilians. A group that does not target civilians, and targets only the combatants, such as the military personnel, cannot be "terrorists" by definition. Such groups are "rebels" or "militants" or you may call them by any other name, but not by the term "terrorists". This, incidentally is precisely the confusion which pro-Western international media, like the BBC had been doing, i.e., confusing "terrorists" with "rebels"! That is why they continue to call anti-Israeli groups like Hamas, Hisabollah, Al Quaida,….etc. by the term "terrorist" while the LTTE is continuously called by the term "rebels" or "militants". So, the fact that by definition, any group that deliberately targets civilians is "terrorist" is conveniently ignored by this self-appointed international arbiters, the "international community". They seem to ignore that such civilian casualties are ‘human casualties’ whether it happens in Gaza or in Sri Lanka. The values which this self-appointed "international community" assign to human lives (civilian lives) which become terrorist victims seems to be very diverse, i.e., those who die of Arab terrorism in Israel are considered to be of highest value, while those who die of LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka seem to be of no value at all!

As if this sort of an ethical irony is not sufficient for the hypocrisy of the "international community", they go on to make yet another distinction based on double-standards. Whenever the Sri Lankan government undertakes a war against LTTE terror and bombs calculated targets, this "international community" express their worry and concern about civilian casualties in such military operations, (and even threaten with sanctions!), while the gruesome, indiscriminate Israeli attacks on Hamas terrorists in Gaza is condoned, and even called "legitimate defence" on the part of Israel! As things stand at the time of writing, the Americans are observing a deafening silence under the pretext that a regime change is about to take place, and thus, giving Israel a free hand to go on their indiscriminate offensive. The new European Union President, of the Chech Republic, has gone on record as saying that Israel’s attack is not an offensive one, but a defensive one! Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who made such a protesting noise about Sri Lankan operations against the LTTE when she was the European Union President, a couple of years ago, is reported to have defended the current Israeli indiscriminate bombing of Gaza calling it "legitimate defence" against terrorist attacks! How come such attacks against terrorism be legitimate in some place while it is not legitimate in another place, unless the value of the victims is diverse? That is to say, for such Western leaders, the reported large number of civilian casualties in Gaza of the present Israeli military operations, seems to be of not that much of value. Whereas, the value of the few civilian casualties in the Sri Lankan scene seems to be immense and much higher!

The reader ought to note in this sort of hypocritical reasoning (as that of the "international community"), also a dangerous streak of moral relativism. Certain acts are right when committed by certain agents of counter-terrorism (who are allies of the "international community", such as Israel) while the same acts are wrong when committed by some other agents of counter-terrorism (such as Sri Lanka). The same moral relativism is at work when it comes to the agents of terrorism. When terrorist groups such as Hamas are on the offensive killing innocent victims, it is highlighted as a grave moral evil, whereas when terrorist groups like the LTTE are on the offensive killing innocent victims, it is ignored as something morally negligible, and ironically on such occasions, the so-called "international community" has the audacity to ask both the government and the LTTE to find a negotiated political settlement, a thing the same "international community" will never do whenever Hamas is on the offensive (namely asking both Israel and Hamas to enter into a negotiated settlement)! The irony becomes even worse when one considers that the same "international community" (both the US and the European Union have proscribed the LTTE as a "terrorist organization on paper)!

The writer wishes to highlight yet another glaring difference between the scenes of the wars against terrorism in Gaza and in Sri Lanka. True, Israel is fighting Hamas terrorism which has been threatening the survival of the Jewish State with the firing of rockets into the Israelite territory every now and then, and thus, killing Israeli civilians. This, in fact, is the point that Israel says she wants to counter, and the point which dragged her into this offensive. However, while not justifying the Hamas terror, let’s not forget that Israel, in her offensive, is entering into non-Israelite territory, i.e., the Gaza Strip, to counter Hamas. This is seen as legitimate by the "international community" while Sri Lanka’s fight to counter terror within her own territory is seen with so much of prejudice, and is often considered by the same "international community" as illegitimate, and at times as "genocide"!

Moreover, let’s not forget that Hamas, though a terrorist organization, was elected overwhelmingly in a democratically conducted election a few years ago, as the legitimate authority in the Palestinian territory, till they were unceremoniously removed from office and chased out to the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian, President Mohamed Abbas. The same "international community" never recognized Hamas as representing the Palestinians though they were democratically elected by the Palestinian people. Whereas, in Sri Lanka, the LTTE which claims to be the "sole representatives" of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, have never faced any democratic election and were never democratically elected, but the same "international community" (which takes great delight in preaching about democracy to others!) has rendered them the status of not only "legitimate representative" but even "sole representative" of the Tamils.

So, obviously there are differences inherent in the two situations of Gaza and Sri Lanka, but there are also some differences that are created by the so-called "international community", both combating terrorists. What the writer intended to highlight in this article was the hypocrisy or the double-standards with which the self-appointed World Policeman, the so-called "international community" treats differently the terrorist groups in the world, and how hypocritically different their treatment of the victims of such terror are. Unless and until, one realises that terrorism anywhere and everywhere in the world is "terrorism", and unless one recognizes that the victims of terrorism, anywhere and everywhere in the world are the same human beings with the same human dignity, no war on terror can be won. This is the lesson which the so-called "international community" (which claims to be on war against "terrorism", but only certain types of "terrorism"!) needs to learn badly. But will they ever learn? - Sri Lanka Guardian