TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The world has watched the genocide in Gaza for too long. It is not only Palestine, but every idea of humanity is now under threat.
IT has been too long the world has simply watched the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. What is happening there is not a typical armed conflict. It is a genocide—the systematic extermination of an ethnic group, the Palestinian people. The number killed, which continues to soar, is only one facet of the ongoing barbarity.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has twice ordered Israel to halt the brutality, although it only referred to the actions as potentially leading to genocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has even issued an arrest warrant. But the world is hiding behind the rhetoric of a ceasefire, without any real efforts to punish Israel.
The statements and rulings from these two courts should form the basis for the international community to take action, because genocide, as stated in the 1948 Geneva Convention, is not only an extraordinary crime but a crime that must be punished. A ceasefire might stop the shooting, but it will not put an end to the impunity of the perpetrators of this crime. Genocide cannot be “hushed up”—it must lead to prosecution.
Unfortunately, history shows that international law always lags behind. The world only acts after a tragedy has turned into a collective wound that it is regretted too late. Look at Rwanda in 1994, when around 800,000 Tutsis were massacred in only 100 days. Or Bosnia, when the siege of Srebrenica was allowed to continue for three years, resulting in more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys being killed. In these two cases, special courts were only established after thousands had died.
Now, Gaza stands on the brink of the same kind of tragedy. More than 60,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed as a result of Israel’s attacks and siege. Infrastructure has been destroyed, while medical assistance has been blocked. Water, electricity and food have been weaponized. All the classic indicators of genocide are present: physical, psychological and cultural destruction of a specific group. But many nations continue to deny it. Israel, with the support of the United States, claims it has acted in self-defense.
It is truly ironic that the lessons of history have been ignored. In a New York Times opinion piece on July 15, 2025, Omer Bartov, Holocaust and genocide studies professor at Brown University in the US, stated that Israel’s crimes in Gaza are an inseparable part of the long history of ethnic persecution, including the Holocaust in Germany, which killed millions of Jews. Because of this horrific history, Israel should understand most of all that there is no justification for ethnic-based mass killings.
When powerful nations defend perpetrators of genocide, international courts lose their authority. The primary motivation for the establishment of a post-Holocaust international judicial system was the desire to prevent a repeat of history. Now history is repeating—with different perpetrators. The tragedy in Gaza is clear evidence of the greatest failure of these international judicial bodies.
But it is not too late to act. The genocide in Gaza is a test of the world’s courage in upholding the fundamental principles of civilization. If the tragedy in Gaza is not halted immediately, it will not only be Palestine that is destroyed, but also all ideals about humanity.
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