Commemorating the 29th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide

London - Today marks the 29th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide which saw the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces. Despite the United Nations declaring Srebrenica a "safe zone" for civilians, the international community's failure to act allowed the systematic killing of innocent civilians.
 
The parallels between the Srebrenica Genocide and the current live streamed genocide taking place in Gaza are stark. Once again, we witness the mass killing of innocent civilians - this time Palestinian men, women, and children - by Israel, and once again, the global response has been appalling. In 9 months over 40,000 Palestinians have been murdered and vast swathes of the occupied Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble. 
 
This week, a study published in The Lancet estimates that the death toll of murdered Palestinian civilians could reach as high as 186,000. Additionally, there is growing evidence from Israeli soldiers revealing that troops routinely shot children and civilians at will, set homes on fire, and left corpses in the streets, all with the approval of their commanders. Such descriptions of the genocide taking place in Gaza mirror the genocide that took place in Srebrenica 29 years ago. The deafening silence and inaction from the international community are reminiscent of the indifference shown during the Bosnian War.
 
The international community has failed in its moral and legal obligations to protect Palestinians, hold the perpetrators of the Gaza genocide accountable, and uphold justice for Palestinians. The time for empty rhetoric and symbolic gestures has long passed. In particular western states, politicians and media have been exposed for the hypocrisy, deceit and double standards.
 
As a result the rules based international order has been destroyed and the world will never forget the complicity of western powers in providing legal and diplomatic cover for the genocidal apartheid Israeli state.