By Ricky Peters
The number of pro-Palestine demonstrations worldwide has become uncountable since the Israeli retaliations to the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023. Recently, 150,000 Dutch people dressed in red took to the streets to symbolically draw a “red line” against Israel.
I don’t want to diminish the human suffering in Gaza. However, due to the intense polarisation, I signal whether one can still be objective. The pressing question hereby is why all those masses of people never took to the streets for other, often much bloodier conflicts in this world.
It seemed like a healthy question to me, but nowadays you get the worst insults and threats hurled at you if you bring up these kinds of issues. Even at the UN, a normal thinking person increasingly gets the impression of whether they still act objectively, given their obsession with Israel.
It’s widely acknowledged that Israel is the subject of a disproportionately high number of UN resolutions compared to other countries / often more worse conflict zones.
According to UN Watch, a non-governmental organisation that monitors the UN:
•          From 2015 through 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted 154 resolutions against Israel and 71 against other countries.
•          In 2024, the UN General Assembly was expected to adopt 19 resolutions on Israel and only seven resolutions on the entire rest of the world. These seven resolutions covered countries like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, Russia (for its occupation of Crimea), and the United States (for its embargo on Cuba).
•          From 2006 through 2024, the UN Human Rights Council adopted 108 resolutions against Israel, compared to 45 against Syria, 15 against Iran, 10 against Russia, and 4 against Venezuela.
•          In 2022, the UN General Assembly passed more resolutions critical of Israel than against all other nations combined.
Even high-ranking UN officials come out with complete nonsense when it comes to Israel. It was recently and seriously claimed that more than 14,000 babies would die in 48 hours of hunger, which turned out not to be true. Or that the Gaza genocide was the first after the bloody massacre in Bosnia in the 90s. This statement was also complete nonsense. More and worser massacres took place in the meantime; here are a few of the most horrifying ones.
China (Uyghurs)
Since around 2014, and intensifying since 2017, China is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. Accusations by multiple governments and human rights organisations include mass arbitrary detention in “re-education camps” (often involving forced labour), extensive evidence of forced sterilisation and birth control targeting Uyghur women, and systematic destruction of cultural and religious sites. Further allegations detail severe restrictions on religious practices, suppression of Uyghur language, family separations, pervasive surveillance, and reports of torture. While many term it “genocide,” a 2022 UN report noted “crimes against humanity,” reflecting the high legal bar for proving genocidal intent, which China vehemently denies.
Yemen
Yemen’s conflict, escalating from March 2015, is recognised as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While not formally recognised as genocide by an international court or the UN, some argue the systematic use of starvation as a weapon and deliberate destruction of infrastructure by all parties, including the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi forces, align with genocidal elements. The immense suffering, displacement, and disease point to widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity, including indiscriminate attacks and blockades impeding aid. Proving direct genocidal intent in this multi-sided conflict presents complex legal challenges, despite the catastrophic human cost.
Darfur (Sudan)
The Darfur genocide began in 2003, with the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militias systematically targeting ethnic African groups like the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa. This campaign involved mass killings, widespread rape, destruction of villages, and forced displacement, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants, including for former President Omar al-Bashir, for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. This case represents a formally recognised genocide where specific intent to destroy ethnic groups was identified through widespread atrocities.
Yazidi (Iraq/Syria)
From 2014 to 2017, ISIS perpetrated a systematic genocide against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria. This included mass executions of men, the enslavement and systemic sexual violence against women and girls, forced conversions, and the deliberate destruction of Yazidi cultural and religious heritage. The UN and numerous international bodies have formally recognised these actions as genocide, confirming ISIS’s intent to destroy the Yazidi people in whole or in part through a campaign of extermination and sexual enslavement. Survivors continue to grapple with the profound trauma and displacement caused by this genocidal campaign.
Rohingya (Myanmar)
Starting in 2016 and intensifying in 2017, the Myanmar military and local militias launched brutal “clearance operations” against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State. These operations involved mass killings, widespread systematic rape, arson, and forced displacement of over a million Rohingya into Bangladesh. Numerous international bodies and countries have widely described these actions as genocide and ethnic cleansing. The scale and nature of the atrocities, including the intent to destroy the group’s presence in Myanmar, align with the legal definition of genocide, leading to ongoing international legal efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.
Iran
Iran faces significant accusations of human rights abuses, with some specifically pointing to genocidal intent against the Baháʼà community, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. A 2024 UN report cited “genocidal intent” in their systematic persecution. This includes widespread discrimination, denial of education and employment, property confiscation, and imprisonment. Furthermore, the death of Mahsa Amini (Jina Amini) in September 2022, a 22-year-old arrested by the morality police for improper hijab, sparked massive nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests. The government responded with a violent crackdown, leading to hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests, which UN experts have described as potentially constituting crimes against humanity, with an emphasis on gender persecution.
No one will deny that there’s an awful lot of human suffering in Gaza. Of course there is. But anyone looking at the bigger picture, the psychological perspective, or in the element of mass and media manipulation, will undoubtedly also wonder where this constant obsession with Israel keeps coming from. Because of all those mass pro-Palestine protests, not a single soul ever took to the streets for the often far more horrific conflicts in this world.
