By: Hira A. Malik
By now, the tragedy of Gaza is no longer a hidden or unfolding crisis — it’s a matter of record. We’ve all seen it: the broken bodies, flattened homes, and children scavenging for food under the eye of drones and snipers. And yet, despite a deluge of evidence and even an international arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the world’s most powerful nations remain largely frozen in place — politically complicit, economically invested, and, morally speaking, entirely bankrupt.
What began as another “flare-up” has spiraled into something far more sinister. Gaza has become not just a warzone but the epicentre of a global reckoning — one that has laid bare the profound failure of international law, the moral decay of Western leadership, and the chilling reality that genocide, if profitable enough, no longer shocks the conscience of the powerful.
From Gaza to Wall Street: The Business of Genocide
In a scathing report titled From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese unmasks the uncomfortable truth: Gaza is not just a political failure — it’s an economic opportunity.
Her dossier traces the web of complicity between state actors and corporate giants: Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Caterpillar, Volvo, Barclays, Pimco, BNP Paribas, and others. All are accused, directly or indirectly, of aiding and profiting from Israel’s campaign — a war conducted with Western weapons, financed by global capital, and sanitized through euphemisms like “reconstruction” and “stability.”
Consider the F-35 fighter jet — Israel was the first to fly it in “beast mode,” loaded with 18,000 pounds of explosives. Parts for this aircraft are manufactured by over 1,600 companies worldwide. When the UK’s High Court recently upheld the legality of its exports to Israel, even while acknowledging their use in violating international humanitarian law, it effectively declared: profits come first.
Meanwhile, Palantir provides decision-making software to the Israeli Defense Forces. Though the company denies direct involvement in specific targeting systems, its fingerprints are visible across Israel’s war infrastructure.
And then there’s Caterpillar and Volvo — firms whose bulldozers have long been used to demolish Palestinian homes. Theirs is a quieter complicity: not bombs but slow, grinding erasure.
Albanese’s conclusion is unambiguous: “This is not just a war; this is a business model.” A model in which global finance — including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund — continues to invest, even as its government expresses concern. Hypocrisy, it seems, is profitable too.
The Punishment of Truth
For exposing this machinery of extermination, Albanese now finds herself sanctioned by the Trump administration. Her crime? Doing her job — and doing it well. The move is not just vindictive; it’s strategic. It signals to every other international official: speak out, and you too may be frozen out of the global financial system.
Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, put it plainly: “This is a brazen assault on the UN system.” And it’s not the first — Trump previously sanctioned International Criminal Court judges for daring to investigate Israeli and American war crimes. The message is clear: accountability ends where Western interests begin.
But Albanese remains unfazed. “There is no joy, and certainly no pride, in being known as the chronicler of genocide,” she said. “Yet suddenly I’m a threat to the global economy — because I asked big tech to comply with international law.”
In any sane world, the warning would be heeded. Instead, it’s being silenced.
Flattening Gaza — and the Global Legal Order
This is not just about Gaza. It’s about the global system — and whether it can survive the contradictions it now harbours.
The truth is, Gaza is being flattened not just physically but conceptually. It is being reduced from a political struggle to a real estate opportunity. Behind closed doors, consulting giant Boston Consulting Group reportedly drafted plans — dubbed “Project Aurora” — to relocate half a million Gazans. At $9,000 per person, they estimated, the population could be cleared for about $5 billion.
This is not post-war planning. This is neo-colonial gentrification by spreadsheet — the transformation of genocide into logistics.
Rebuilding Gaza as a “Riviera,” as Trump once flippantly proposed, is not development. It’s displacement repackaged as economic opportunity — with corporations lining up to cash in. As Ashok Swain noted, this is not reconstruction. It’s legal laundering. And it tells Palestinians the same thing every bomb and bulldozer does: your suffering is a commodity.
Netanyahu’s War Without End
And then there’s Netanyahu. According to a damning New York Times Magazine report, Israel’s far-right leader is deliberately prolonging the war for political survival. No post-war plan. No political horizon. Just endless war, tailored to keep him in power and out of prison.
This isn’t just personal corruption — it’s strategic nihilism. The destruction of Gaza has become a self-serving political tool, with little regard for what comes next. The goal is clear: permanent military occupation, demographic engineering, and the total dismantling of Palestinian nationhood.
And yet, amid this carnage, Netanyahu was invited to address the US Congress — to standing ovations. The same country that once championed international law now cheers a man indicted for war crimes, even as his military bombs hospitals.
America’s Moral Collapse
Which brings us to the question: why is America not just complicit, but enthusiastic?
The answer lies deeper than diplomacy or “shared values.” It lies in the convergence of two ideologies: Christian Zionism and Social Darwinism.
The former, preached by televangelists like the late Jimmy Swaggart, teaches that modern-day Israel is divinely ordained — a holy entity immune from critique. The latter, championed by capitalists like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, insists that empathy is weakness and that the “unfit” — read: poor, brown, stateless — should simply be left to perish.
Together, these belief systems justify the unthinkable. In their world, Gaza isn’t a humanitarian crisis. It’s a test of loyalty. A price of prophecy. A canvas for profit.
When the Law Becomes the Crime
There was a time when the international legal order promised to stand above politics. That time is over.
Today, those who call for justice — Albanese, Roth, Swain — are smeared as radicals. Meanwhile, the architects of mass starvation and aerial extermination are toasted in parliaments and protected in courtrooms. International norms are no longer enforced — they are selectively applied or actively dismantled.
And what of the institutions we once believed could restrain this descent? The ICC has charged Israeli leaders with war crimes, but stopped short of genocide. The UN Security Council remains neutered by vetoes. Aid continues to flow — not to save lives, but to sanitise policy.
As Moustafa Bayoumi warned in The Guardian, “genocide is being normalised as a legitimate tool of warfare.” Not because the law has changed — but because the will to uphold it has vanished.
The World Is Watching — and Waking Up
If there’s hope, it lies not in capitals or courtrooms, but in the growing chorus of people unwilling to look away.
More than 57,000 Palestinians are dead. Over 138,000 wounded. And still, millions march. Students occupy campuses. Activists blockade arms shipments. Civil society is making itself heard in a way that institutions have refused to.
The question now isn’t whether the genocide in Gaza will be remembered. It will be. The question is what we will do with that memory.
Will we treat it as a policy failure? Or a turning point?
Will we remember it as the moment the world finally stared its own reflection in the mirror — and recoiled?
Or will we let it be the rehearsal for the next one?
Because if the world’s most powerful nations can watch this happen in high-definition, knowing every detail — and still choose silence — then Gaza isn’t just a failure of politics.
It’s the collapse of conscience itself.
