On January 17 last year, my column was titled, “Here is what 2023 should teach every post-colonial human.” That article was about one subject only – the double standards of the West, the very West that fashioned a rule-based system for global interactions and demanded that the post-colonial world shape their national and international behavior in accordance with international norms.

In that commentary last year, I juxtaposed the West’s aggressive denunciation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its pro-Israeli stance in relation to genocide in Gaza. It was because of these double standards, the Third World refused to join the relentless energy of the West to encircle Russia.
In that very column, I mentioned the almost impossible criteria Canada has placed on Palestinian seeking refugee status while the paperwork to be filled by Ukrainian refugees is simpler than kissing the palm of your hand.  Here is how I ended that January 17, 2024 column, “Gaza showed in 2023 that the West cannot and will never be a standard bearer for humanitarian justice, philosophical truths and democratic endurance.”

Did we see any change in 2024 in the West’s double standards in adhering to international laws?  Here is what happened in 2024 that poses an existential threat to the rule-based international system. The International Criminal Court (ICI) issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Many countries in the West have said that they will not accept the warrant.

It was France that offered the bizarre and ghoulish explanation of why it will not arrest Netanyahu. France said Israel is not a signatory to the ICC and therefore you can’t apply ICC rules to Netanyahu. But while France and the US will not arrest Netanyahu, France and the US have accepted the ICC’s arrest document for Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu is accused by the ICC of committing genocide. Putin is accused of kidnapping Ukrainian children and forcefully taking them to Russia. The children are alive and well, but about 30, 000 thousand mothers and children have died by the wanton bombing of their homes by Israeli jet fighters.
Here is an interesting reaction to the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu. It was told to world famous journalist, Christiane Amanpour by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan. Mr. Khan did not name the high-ranking Western government official, but he reported what he said to him in a moment of emotional exclamation. He shouted: “This court was built for African and thugs like Putin.”

Mr. Khan said he received threats while conducting the investigation into Netanyahu. He did not go further but take your mind further and logical deduction will tell you that the threats came from countries that have persistently instructed the post-colonial world after independence to observe democratic rules and international law.

So, Mr. Putin is a thug and not Netanyahu, and why is that so? Because the West says so. So, the West sets their standards to which the countries of the Global South must adhere to. The ICC controversy in 2024 is simply a continuation of what took place in 2023. But 2024 not not produce the double standards in the observation of international morality. It also produced glaring hypocrisy in Western journalism.

So, if you think 2023 has opened the eyes of the peoples of the Third World, so did 2024. Every account of the bombing of Gaza and Beirut came from official press releases from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). So, through the prism of Western journalism, the world knew how many causalities Hamas and Hezbollah suffered as reported by Israel. And the world knew that Israel suffered no losses as reported by the Western media as told by the IDF.

So last year, when Iran bombed Israel, the Israeli government said there was no damage, and the drones were intercepted. But factually there was widespread damage, including the destruction of a military intelligence building. Last year, the bombing of Gaza continued. The earth toll is around 45, 000.
Since October 7, 2023, the West with its great tradition of democracy going back to centuries, has failed to bring about a cease-fire in Gaza. What account for that failure when the very West sustains the foundation of the state of Israel? How can the West fail to wrest from Israel a ceasefire in a country that is a mere 8000 square miles with 8 million people? But the very West wants a cease-fire from Russia, which is not close to the West as Israel is. Really! What are friends for? As with 2023, 2024 has opened the eyes of the world as to who really practices democracy.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.