Opinion: How Palestinian lives are reduced to a series of grotesque calculations

In 2011, the full force of Nato airpower was mobilised with a UN resolution to protect civilians in Libya after former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s army fired on peaceful protesters, killing dozens of people. 

That military action was authorised with reference to the norm of “responsibility to protect”, which states that the international community should step in when civilians’ lives are threatened. 

In Gaza, where more than two million people have been deliberately starved amid relentless Israeli bombardment since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, we have seen a campaign of genocide replete with sexual violence, mass graves, detainees paraded in their underwear, the bombing of schools and hospitals, and mass displacement.

We have also seen the last nail in the coffin of the idea of humanitarian intervention and responsibility to protect.

Given the unbelievable atrocities in Gaza, we can ask: was the notion of responsibility to protect always a flimsy liberal veil over the US-led military imperial project? 

READ MORE: How Palestinian lives are reduced to a series of grotesque calculations, opinion by Susannah O'sullivan