Far away from a fast paced, complex world, Virgin Islanders are concerned primarily about issues impacting our island community. Yet, at times forces far away deserve our attention, command our concern; like distant hurricanes which can engulf us in winds so violent they destroy what we’ve spent a lifetime building. Indifference towards such distance forces can be catastrophic.
The genocide in Gaza is a moral hurricane. It is the moral issue of the 21st century, impacting the entire globe with its unconscionable inhumanity. The statistics are staggering, the images unbearable. The non-stop winds in Gaza are generated by men, not nature. Men motivated by vengeance and racial hatred, suppressing facts, holding a propaganda banner of self-defense which defies reason and caves to moral scrutiny. Notably, since Oct. 7, 2023 Israel has refused entry of any foreign press to Gaza, an area the size of St Croix, which for 58 years has been a fenced “occupied territory” completely removed from Israeli society, its two million inhabitants totally controlled by the Israel military.
The tragic legacy of the Gaza genocide lands heavily on the complicity of the United States. Simply stated, those inhumane winds could not have gathered and organized without U.S. support to Israel from both the Biden and Trump Administrations, i.e. supplying all the bombs, weapons and billions of dollars, essential for enabling Israel to wage an unrelenting assault. Most telling, neither president ever refused to discontinue military weapons or restrict financial support to Israel for its egregious violations of humanitarian laws, highlighted by public denouncements and condemnations by U.N. agencies and the International Court of Justice, as well as U.S. statutes clearly prohibiting such support.
U.S. support continues to this day: regardless of the 61,158 unarmed innocent civilians killed, and 151,442 injured; regardless of 90% of the homes destroyed; regardless of the destruction of all the schools, hospitals and clinics, roads, water and sanitation facilities, cultural and historical sites. All decimated, leaving behind 47 million tons of rubble and stateless residents living in tents, starving to death, lining up at food centers, hoping not to be murdered by IDF soldiers and hired mercenaries doing target practice.
Laws are enacted to guide a society towards achieving just ends by fair means, with the best laws based on morality. A morality that emerges out of spiritual and religious teachings, guided by a universal directive to love one another, without regard to race or creed certain that every one of us are children of God. Even when we have allowed our human frailties to give way and descended into organized violence, jurists have crafted laws to ensure humane treatment during war’s darkness.
International Humanitarian Laws, the Geneva Conventions and its Protocols, the Genocide Convention (signed by Israel) are intended to prevent inhumane acts which forfeit our morality and assault our conscience. In addition, the U.S. Congress has enacted specific statutes to prevent our “nation of laws” from a descent to unconscionable levels. Specifically, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act forbidding assistance to any government engaging “in a consistent pattern of gross violations of international recognized human rights;” the Leahy Law, prohibiting funds to assist foreign security forces where there is credible information those forces are engaged in gross violations of human rights; the U.S. War Crimes Act, forbidding willful killing, torture, inhumane treatment and willful infliction of suffering, serious injuries, and unlawful deportation or transfer of civilians; the Arms Export Control Act, prescribing that recipients of U.S. military aid can only use that aid for legitimate self-defense and internal security.
Morality defines who we are. It is not a passive virtue, where lip service can suffice. Morality insists we overcome our indifference, our fears of criticism, and become visible to everyone; most importantly to ourselves. We needn’t fear that visibility which speaks to character. Public condemnation of the state of Israel for its genocidal killing and starving of unarmed civilians is not antisemitic. Public condemnation of U.S. officials when they have discarded their moral compass, ignored international norms, brazenly violated U.S. laws, is not unpatriotic, nor unAmerican.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
— John Sullivan is a retired international lawyer living on St. Croix.
Sources: World Bank; United Nations; European Union Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); World Health Organization (WHO); International Rescue Committee (IRC); UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COL) on the Occupied Palestinian Territories; UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of January 2024 that Israeli must take to verifiable steps to prevent genocide and allow necessary aid to enter Gaza.
UN Special Rapporteur report concluding Israel has committed at least three of the constitutive acts of genocide in Gaza, and that statements made by high-level Israeli military and government officials are evidence of genocidal intent.
Editor’s Note: Opinion articles do not represent the views of the Virgin Islands Source newsroom and are the sole expressed opinion of the writer. Submissions can be made to visource@gmail.com.
