Since October 7, the world has watched — some in silence, others in complicity — one of the darkest chapters of our modern era unfold. Gaza has been bombed relentlessly; neighborhoods reduced to dust, hospitals destroyed, children pulled lifeless from the rubble. And yet, in Western capitals, the response has been chillingly muted. The universal principles so often invoked by the West have collapsed at the very moment they were needed most — when the victims were Palestinians.
Morality, Measured by Interest
From the very first day, a single phrase dominated Western discourse: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Since then, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, entire families erased — yet the official narrative remains unchanged: a justified response.
But what if the roles were reversed? What if another state inflicted even a fraction of these atrocities on a Western population? The word “genocide” would echo across every news channel, the machinery of international justice would awaken, and sanctions would rain down. But when the blood spilled is Palestinian, silence becomes policy, hypocrisy becomes doctrine, and morality bends to power.
This double standard is not a mistake — it is a system. A system that ranks human lives, that measures grief according to nationality, and that reduces empathy to a geopolitical calculation. A Palestinian child, it seems, is worth less than a Ukrainian one. The blood of the colonized remains cheaper than the blood of those who colonized them.
When Resistance Is Criminalized, and Occupation Is Justified
We are told that “violence must be condemned on all sides.” Yet only the violence of the oppressed is condemned. Palestinian resistance is criminalized, while occupation, colonization, and siege are sanitized under the label of “security.”
For decades, the same hypocrisy has been rehearsed: the victim is expected to suffer quietly, while the oppressor is absolved in the name of self-defense. The world demands that Palestinians die politely, without disturbing the conscience of the “civilized” nations.
The West’s Moral Unmasking
October 7 was not merely the beginning of a war; it was a moral unveiling. The West — that self-proclaimed guardian of human rights — stood exposed, its universalism revealed as selective, its compassion conditional.
Freedom, dignity, and justice have become empty slogans, invoked against others but never against oneself. Humanity, once claimed as a shared value, is now a privilege distributed according to power, race, or political convenience.
A System, Not an Exception
Western silence is not neutrality — it is complicity. The international order that justifies occupation while punishing resistance does not suffer from a temporary failure; it is morally bankrupt by design. It is an order built on double standards — one that sanctifies injustice under the banner of law.
Every bomb dropped on Gaza is not only an act of destruction against Palestinians; it is also an assault on the credibility of those who claim to defend human rights.
A People Alone — Yet Standing Tall
History will remember that, in 2023 and 2024, as an entire people faced annihilation, the powerful looked away. But it will also remember that the Palestinians, wounded yet unbroken, refused to kneel.
Gaza, the city they tried to crush, has become the living conscience of the world. And the Palestinian people, whom they sought to erase, have become the enduring symbol of human dignity in an age of moral decay.
In the end, bombs do not define justice, nor do empires decide truth. Memory does.
And memory — unlike politics — does not forget.
By Belgacem Merbah
Petition : https://www.mesopinions.com/petition/politique/appel-solennel-a-expulsion-marocains-situation/232124
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