How Not to Halt a Genocide - World BEYOND War
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Why doesn't Italy have a ship for rescuing people but not killing people? Why doesn't the United Nations headquarters have a pair of handcuffs? Why doesn't the anti-war movement have a deeper understanding of what's wrong with war and what it could be replaced with?

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 26, 2025

All those courageous United Nation delegates triumphantly walking out (gasp!) on a Netanyahu speech on Friday actually had a legal obligation to arrest him and deliver him to the International Criminal Court which has long since issued a warrant for his arrest.

Those heroic governments of Italy and Spain that are making a show of responding to public pressure against their complicity in genocide should be prosecuting Israelis under universal jurisdiction; establishing a complete embargo on weapons or weapons parts to or from Israel and to or from any nation not upholding such an arms embargo on Israel; ending diplomatic relations with Israel; ending financial transactions, trade, and travel to and from Israel; training and sending unarmed civilian defense teams, food, medicine, doctors, and aid workers to Palestine; developing a major public educational campaign about the genocide in Gaza and the propaganda that has facilitated it; supporting a Uniting for Peace action through the UN General Assembly to implement such steps worldwide and to economically sanction Israeli war criminals, expel Israel from the United Nations, and move UN meetings and headquarters out of the United States; as well as breaking off military relations with and expelling from Italy and Spain the thousands of troops belonging to a government that is not upholding an arms embargo on Israel; and removing themselves from NATO.

Instead, what are Italy and Spain doing? Sending military ships alongside the Global Sumud Flotilla. This elicits cheers from populations raised to believe, in the face of all evidence, that militaries solve problems. Meanwhile, the Italian government is reportedly trying to claim it does not mean it. It says effectively that it will rescue anyone Israel leaves alive in the water, but it will not fight Israel.

There is a way in which this sort of makes sense. Namely, if Italy were fighting Israel it would also be fighting the United States which maintains all kinds of weapons and some 15,000 troops at some 40 bases in Italy and oversees a great deal of the Italian military and its U.S.-made weaponry. Is Italy expected to go to war with itself? Would anyone have any control over the possible escalations, including nuclear?

There is another way in which this makes no sense. Why didn’t Italy send a ship full of skilled, trained rescuers — the people with experience violating Italy’s laws to save humans lacking Italian passports from drowning in the Mediterranean? It sent military ships because it is a Western government made up largely of a military and thinking primarily like a military. What could go wrong?

I dearly hope nothing.

But Israel could attack the Italian navy’s ships. Israel could double-tap some flotilla participants of the proper variety (Italian) and some rescuers. Israel could simply attack some Italian flotilla participants, and the Piazza del Popolo fill up with the Popolo and the Italian government become convinced that it needs to “do something” — and we all know what “do something” means to a government.

Those righteous protesters marching in New York City and around the world keep demanding a military intervention, as if that’s not exactly what Netanyahu wants, as if dragging the United States into a wider war has not been his agenda for years, as if Tony Blair isn’t preparing right now to lead the genocide-completion occupation, as if the weapons dealers don’t pay good money for “military interventions are legal” talk that peace activists could have dipped into if they were more savvy.

Why doesn’t Italy have a ship for rescuing people but not killing people?

Why doesn’t the United Nations headquarters have a pair of handcuffs?

Why doesn’t the anti-war movement have a deeper understanding of what’s wrong with war and what it could be replaced with?

Well, we’re none of us perfect. We’re all learning and trying. More and more people and organizations are –absurdly late — turning against the genocide in Gaza. If they can be persuaded to use strategic nonviolent tools to put it to an end, the result will have a better chance of avoiding frustration, wider war, or global chaos and apocalypse.

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