Human rights and international humanitarian law are not complicated. While the region’s history is long and complex, the International Court of Justice has determined what’s happening now in Gaza may be plausibly characterized as genocide. Attacks against civilian populations, collective punishment, and starvation are all war crimes. Put bluntly, we can’t “both sides” what is happening and you can support Palestinian human rights without any other expertise in international relations or foreign affairs.

You can support human rights and oppose war crimes unequivocally in a single sentence. “Whataboutism” is a distraction. Stay focused on the central issue of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine to help you speak up with clarity and purpose now. If other governments see that it’s possible to get away with genocidal war crimes, they will be encouraged to do the same.

First, justice is not a zero-sum game. It is possible to advocate for human rights in multiple countries simultaneously, and many decolonial and liberatory struggles are connected. It is absolutely true that civilians are suffering horrendously in Sudan, Congo and elsewhere. These conflicts all deserve more international attention. 

We are centering the plight of Palestinians in this project for the following reasons:

• Two of the world’s most militarised countries (notably Israel & USA) together with the support of major powers (e.g. Germany, UK) are actively targeting civilians under siege. It’s a battle between wealthy, tech-enabled militaries and an occupied population – not a war between two armies – that is being actively aided and abetted at the highest levels in the West.  
• If the world accepts Israel’s model of genocidal war crimes, we can be certain it will be exported. The “battle tested” technology, the extremist politics, the unprecedented levels of destruction – all of it. This makes us all less safe. 
• Palestinians have faced 70+ years of violent oppression and occupation. The only difference now is that the trampling of their universal human rights is finally on display for the world to see. Their time has come – they deserve justice. 
• This conflict has huge potential to trigger wider global wars. If Palestine weren’t so strategic for so many world powers, this tiny patch of land linking the Middle East to Africa would have been abandoned long ago. 

Perhaps most positively, if the global community can force the most powerful nations to adhere to international law in Palestine, lessons will be learnt about how to manage other armed conflicts in a more humanitarian way. The power of the people will be undeniable. Precedents will be set. 

Again, none of this means other genocides should be ignored! If you are called to focus elsewhere, you can do so without using whataboutism to undermine solidarity with Palestinians.

No. International humanitarian law sets limits. The laws of armed conflict (e.g, Hague Law, Geneva Law) only function if all countries adhere to them, including the wealthy and powerful ones. We cannot allow a world where there are no limits to the use of violence..

Taking hostages is illegal under international law and should be totally unacceptable whoever does it. Many Israeli and Jewish commentators – not to mention the relatives of the hostages – have highlighted that the Netanayhu government has shown little real interest in securing the release of the hostages held by Hamas. It has been widely reported that Hamas was willing to release the hostages in early October but the Israeli government refused the deal; this is the same for the current ceasefire deal which Hamas accepted but Israel rejected. Israel has said it is determined to attack Rafah, putting its own hostages and Palestinian civilians at risk. Since 1967 Israel has detained approximately one million Palestinians, including tens of thousands of children. As a percentage of population, this is enormous; at least four out of every 10 Palestinian men will spend time in Israeli jails, with 70 percent of Palestinian families having at least one relative detained. During the November 2023 ceasefire, Hamas released 110 Israeli and foreign nationals held captive in Gaza, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, of which 107 were children and three-quarters had not been convicted of a crime. This repressive system needs to be changed.

Trust your own eyes and critical thinking skills. The long lines of trucks that Israel is preventing from delivering humanitarian aid have been photographed and filmed extensively.  Firsthand accounts are also widely available. For example, see U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), reporting on Israeli checkpoints intentionally bottlenecking aid.

“Israel has set up a very complicated system to inspect the trucks beforehand. They had such an inspection system before October 7th, and they were able to inspect and allow 500 trucks a day to enter. But they’ve set up a convoluted system now that Senator Van Hollen and I witnessed at Rafah crossing, where truck drivers, after loading up their supplies, often wait up to a week to get permission to pass into Gaza — a week.”

On 7 May, Israel seized and shut down the Rafah crossing cutting off all aid supply lines. The area is now an active war zone. 

Palestinians also have the right to self-determination, to live in security and in dignity without Israeli military rule. This right – to sovereign statehood – is enshrined in many UN resolutions but has so far been denied. We must not allow Israel to keep infringing this right.

Speaking out for Palestinian human rights benefits everyone who believes in shared international norms and a rules-based international order. If any state actor is permitted to violate this architecture with impunity, the structure loses its credibility and value.  

As the US government and many experts have admitted in private, Hamas cannot be defeated militarily and even if this did happen, another group will spring up in its place. The only way to end the cycle of violence is to make progress on a political solution based on international law and the right to self-determination. This means ending Israel’s occupation and supporting sovereign statehood for Palestinians. Such a political solution starts with a ceasefire and de-escalation.

Yes, accusations tend to fly when the status quo is challenged. Antisemitism is real and should be condemned. Islamophobia and anti Palestinian racism is also real and should also be condemned. Always secure your position from a place of shared humanity rather than a place of hate. Supporting Palestinian human rights doesn’t mean you hate the people of Israel or support terror – there are many Jewish people who are highly critical of what the Israeli government is doing.

Power and privilege are never given up without a fight, and this may include bad-faith smears and accusations. Everyone has to decide their own level of risk and involvement based on how they want history to remember them. 

You don’t have to know international law chapter and verse, but you can refer to a few basic facts:

1. The right to self determination is enshrined in international law. 
2. Palestinians have been living under Israeli military occupation since 1967. The International Court of Justice is currently considering whether the occupation has become illegal and has to end immediately without negotiation. 
3. The UN has repeatedly affirmed Palestinian right to self-determination. Palestinian statehood is the majority wish of the international community. 

These basic international legal principles are neither antisemitic nor are they supporting terrorism.

It is possible to support Palestinian human rights meaningfully without social media. Use whatever platform you have, even if it’s simply calls to your elected officials or conversations amongst friends or family. If you are on social media, look at how others are using it to support Palestinian human rights. Supporters are even speaking up on career site LinkedIn.

It’s easy to feel powerless (even a sense of doom) on issues of human rights or any other major crisis. This defeatism, while understandable, only serves to keep things the way they are. The underlying power structures are clearly threatened by our growing influence, but it will take many more of us to turn the tide. Change doesn’t happen on its own. We must speak up and make it happen. 

It may help to know that it only takes a small percentage of a population, properly mobilized, to make a nonviolent campaign successful.

Standing up for equal rights requires bravery. Movements for civil rights, voting rights, etc. have all been met with resistance throughout history. We all have to weigh what we know is right in the long term against short term reputational, professional, and other risks. Millions of us are speaking up for Palestinians because we feel morally compelled to do so in this critical moment. 

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” – US Airman Aaron Bushnell, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC. This is a brave but extreme act of protest which we do not recommend others copy. But his question is highly relevant to all of us who are silent despite being concerned about what is being done in our name.