“Lebanon cannot be another Gaza,” the UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said last week in response to a question during a press briefing regarding Israel’s war in Lebanon. Earlier this month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly spoke about Israel’s plans to extend its non-declared borders into Syria and Lebanon, besides the encroachment already in place and extending in Gaza. Israeli ministers also spoke of applying the same tactics used in Gaza to South Lebanon.
Dujarric’s statement carries as much weight as contradiction in UN rhetoric. Lebanon cannot be another Gaza, and yet, the UN is doing nothing to stop Israel from expanding its borders and increasing its kill toll. On that level, Lebanon is on a par with Gaza – the UN’s silent complicity makes them comparable.
However, not once since October 2023 have we heard any UN official sound a warning about Gaza in terms of comparison. What would UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, or Dujarric, have said? Gaza cannot become another Gaza? There is no comparison to what Gaza has suffered in increasing increments.
Israel then decided genocide would not only be possible but also acceptable, because the UN constitutes the legacy of former colonial powers masquerading as alleged guardians of human rights.
For Dujarric to be able to make such a statement, the UN must assume accountability. Had the international community truly worked to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Dujarric would not be able to elicit a comparison. The UN would not be able to turn Gaza into a mere reference for other realities, while completely ignoring the realities created there for Palestinians by Israel’s colonial violence and genocide.
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At any given moment, and with the UN’s tacit blessings, Gaza can become another destroyed Gaza. From Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to the genocide that started in October 2023, Israel went from partial to the near absolute destruction of Gaza. Dujarric’s rhetorical concern for Lebanon and its comparison to Gaza normalises the genocide in Gaza even further. It is not a question of taking an absolute stance against genocide, but ensuring the genocidal tactics are not replicated in Lebanon, which makes Gaza a contemporary reference point. The difference is that while Lebanon cannot be another Gaza, Gaza was forced into becoming the reference for a genocide that carries not only impunity but complete normalisation. And the normalisation of genocide is specific to Gaza.
In UN rhetoric, Gaza maintains relevance but not importance.
Lebanon should not suffer what Palestinians have suffered. However, the international duty to protect Palestinians in Gaza from genocide should have eclipsed any need for future references in similar Israeli colonial aggressions.
For UN officials to make such statements, it should be clarified that the UN allowed Israel’s genocide to happen in Gaza. This selectivity – in rhetoric not in practice – illustrates how the UN was fine with all the tactics Israel used to ethnically cleanse Gaza, to normalise genocide only in Gaza’s context. Israel couldn’t have asked for better rhetorical contradictions at an international level. The underlying UN message is that genocide is a war crime – anywhere except in Gaza.
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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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