By Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK | 8 August 2025 (IDN) — For eight decades, the world has witnessed the suffering of the Palestinians. Recently, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions”.
The deplorable status of the Palestinians is a vivid example of how Israel blatantly defies UN resolutions, rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and other UN bodies, and the impotence of the United Nations.
Palestine: An incessant cataclysm for 78 years
Historically, the question of Palestine was first brought before the UN General Assembly in 1947. By resolution 181, the Assembly decided to partition Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish.
The Palestinians recognise their country to be the geographic region spanning from the Mediterranean Sea in the east to the Jordan River in the west. Most of this land is now occupied by Israel and filled with Jewish settlers.
In 1967, during the infamous Six-Day War, Israel seized Gaza, the West Bank, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Thereafter, Israel built Israeli civilian settlements on occupied lands, building over 200 Jewish settlements, and settled over 450,000 Israelis in them, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their own legally owned lands.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem (which contains holy sites) and claims the area as part of its capital. In the West Bank, Israel built several Jewish settlements, and over 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in these two areas.
So, the modus operandi has been: Wage wars, occupy territories, build settlements, and settle Israelis in the illegally acquired properties.
Since 1948, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council have been preoccupied with this disastrous conflict—adopting nearly 400 resolutions (187 UNSC and 192 UNGA, respectively)—all defied by Israel.
In July 2024, in a “watershed” ruling, the UN’s top court, the ICJ,ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 is illegal, and that it must withdraw its military forces and settlers from all Palestinian territories, desist from creating new settlements, and evacuate those already established. It concluded that where Palestinians have lost land and property, Israel should pay reparations. The ICJ perceived it as “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention.
Also, in 2024, following investigations of war crimes and crimes (starvation, murder and persecution) against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
Despite these efforts, the tragic situation in Gaza is one of the worst tragedies in world history.
War crimes that border on genocide
The current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians erupted in October 2023 after a Hamas incursion into southern Israel that resulted in 1,200 deaths and around 230 taken hostage. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at destroying Hamas and recovering the hostages.
Hamas’ attack on Israel was premeditated, unprovoked and injudicious, but Israel’s response to date has been more brutal. Since October 2023, what we hear and watch on TV daily is about Israel’s endless killing of hapless Palestinians, mostly women and children.
According to the UN, many buildings, schools and hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed, over 700,000 people in Gaza displaced, living in tents, and forced to flee several times.
Hundreds of doctors, volunteers, and staff have been killed since October 2023, and Israel’s complete blockade since March 2025, blocking food, fuel, medicine and aid—is threatening famine for Gaza’s 2.1 million inhabitants.
Already over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 151,000 wounded. The UN claims that, since May 2025, over 1,373 civilians were killed and over 8,152 injured while these hungry people were lining up for a pittance of food. Famine is already there, with hundreds of emaciated children dying of hunger. UNICEF says 28 Palestinian children die every day.
According to Human Rights Watch, Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war—a war crime—as well as Israel’s continued intentional deprivation of aid and basic services, amounts to a crime against humanity of extermination, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide. According to the WFP, this is unlike anything we have seen in this century.
In today’s world, these atrocities and crimes are being broadcast live across the globe. Regardless, many Western leaders stay silent—without realising that silence in the face of these blatant war crimes is not neutrality—it is complicity.
Can we deliver justice to the Palestinians?
The only pragmatic and ethical long-term solution to ending the Israel-Palestine conflict is the two-state solution for the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Last September, the UN General Assembly passed another resolution giving Israel one year to abide by the ICJ’s 2024 ruling to withdraw its military forces and settlers from all Palestinian territories.
Today’s world opinion is geared towards that goal, and even the traditional US allies have found it difficult to ignore the catastrophe in Gaza any longer. Recently, France, the UK, and Canada formally pledged to recognise Palestine—hard to believe—at the UN General Assembly session in September.
Already, 147 of the 193 UN member states—including Russia, China, India, Brazil, etc., have recognised the State of Palestine, effectively endorsing the two-state solution.
At the recently held UN High-Level Conference on the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the participants agreed to seek an immediate end to the war in Gaza. It also agreed that in a two-state solution, Hamas will have no place in the governance of Gaza.
Saying that “The [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict cannot be managed and must be resolved, the UN Secretary-General implored the international community to take the urgent, concrete, irreversible steps necessary to make it real“.
If Israel refuses to cooperate and if the US vetoes a UN Security Council Resolution for a two-state solution, the whole world may resort to other options such as a concerted economic boycott, sanctioning of Israel, suspending free trade agreements and weapons sales to Israel, etc., just as the world resorted to eradicating apartheid in South Africa.
Let‘s hope that “the two-state“ solution prevails.
*Somar Wijayadasa, an international lawyer, was a Faculty Member of the University of Sri Lanka (1967-1972); worked for UN Agencies IAEA and FAO (1973-1985): delegate of UNESCO to the UN General Assembly (1985-1995); and was the Representative of UNAIDS at the United Nations from 1995-2000. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image: People clamour for food in Gaza. Credit: UNRWA
