An unlivable world...the unread message of Al-Aqsa Flood

The lack of transparency and accountability, and the erosion of the rules-based international order, have become worrying features of this century.

(Anatolia Agency)

There are many letters sent by the “Al-Aqsa Flood” more than five months after it occurred, but they were not read well, and sometimes they were not captured at all.

With the flood, the growing historical trend crystallized that the Palestinian issue was no longer the primary issue of Arabs and Muslims, despite what opinion polls showed of their sympathy and support for it.

This support seems weak and ineffective, while there appears to be a major shift in sectors of global public opinion - especially in the West - towards the issue, in addition to the support of many countries of the South, which can be said;

The Palestinian issue has become the issue of the Palestinians first, and the issue of the world now.

This transformation will have major strategic repercussions in the near future, especially after the war on Gaza turned into a mirror that reflects the totality of crises suffered by wide sectors of humanity on our planet, which can be said;

The forces and movements that support the Palestinians against the war of extermination see - each from their own perspective - their own suffering.

Extreme nationalism, inequality of income, opportunity and wealth, excessive militarization, widespread corruption, widespread transnational racism and xenophobia, the rise of the right, gender inequality, declining freedom, increasing economic vulnerability of large segments of the population, and a lack of transparency and accountability, The erosion of the rules-based international order has become a worrying feature of this century.

The pandemic disproportionately affects the poor and marginalized, corruption hits hardest those with the least access to basic necessities, while elites exploit justice systems.

War is on the rise everywhere.

When the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London published its official survey of armed conflicts in early December last year,

It counted 183 conflicts globally in 2023, higher than recorded 30 years ago.

The world as a whole is a more violent place than it has been for at least 30 years.

By some measures, countries are more conflict-ridden than at any time since the end of World War II.

Conflict between non-state armed groups, such as gangs, has more than tripled, according to Sweden's Uppsala Conflict Data Programme, since its lowest levels in 2007. Violence by government forces against civilians has doubled since 2009, and assassination attempts on politicians and opponents are on the rise.

In 2011;

There have been approximately 40,000 deaths due to wars around the world, but according to Uppsala's estimates for 2022 the number has exceeded 238,000, an almost six-fold increase.

Coups are becoming more common: nine regimes have seized power by force since 2020. There are more governments falling under military control in one region than during the Arab Spring in 2010/11, or the color revolutions of the previous decade, which fell in There are only four governments each.

The recent Freedom in the World report from Freedom House found that 80 percent of the world's population does not live in a free country.

Global crises such as the pandemic and climate change are devastating in their own right, but they also amplify our deep-rooted structural problems, especially inequality, racism, and the effects of corruption, elite capture, and authoritarianism around the world.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2023 shows that global corruption is on the rise.

On a scale of 0 to 100, the global average stands at 43, with most countries making no progress;

23 countries fell to their lowest levels last year.

Just as the pandemic disproportionately affects the poor and marginalized, corruption disproportionately affects those with the least access to basic necessities, while elites exploit justice systems.

Income inequality has increased in most advanced and major emerging economies.

According to the “Rising Inequality Gap” report released by the Brookings Institution last year.

Around the world, repression is escalating, authoritarians are exploiting new digital technologies to crush dissent at home and sow disinformation abroad, and violent conflicts within and between states have escalated, accompanied by widespread violations of international humanitarian law and impunity for perpetrators of war crimes.

Existing international institutions struggle to protect established rights and adapt principles of human dignity to new global threats.

This issue extends beyond the role of the military-industrial complex represented by arms companies and its extension into politics through decision-making.

Rather, it is about entrenched structural violence and the dominance of the security state model.

The aggression against Gaza revealed the weakness and defect in the international human rights system, but this weakness is not recent and is not linked only to the situation of Israel.

The arrangements of the international system since World War II carry within them contradictions that make double standards and politicization of human rights inevitable in international relations, and human rights organizations deal with this reality with its contradictions.

The same parties that today support Palestinian rights are the same parties that previously participated in covering up other crimes or protecting executioners. For example, South Africa was an opponent of the International Criminal Court and the arrest warrant issued against Omar al-Bashir, and believed that the court was targeting Africa. .

Biden explained that Ukraine was the central front in a “larger battle for... basic democratic principles”;

So the United States will rally the free world against the "sworn enemies of democracy."

The Arab regime has also been involved and continues to engage in the practice of double standards at the Arab and international levels - how have Arab countries dealt with crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs in China, or the current famine in Sudan?

Russia and China have exercised their veto power more than 14 times in two years against any decision related to human rights in Syria, and the Arab regime has also reconciled with Bashar al-Assad, despite the crimes he has committed and is still committing against the Syrians.

What Israel did was previously practiced by Arab countries and some of their ruling systems, but what is new is the clear and not-so-hidden Western complicity represented by the entire Western system with its institutions, media and governments.

75 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all of humanity is in danger.

Around the world, repression is escalating, authoritarians are exploiting new digital technologies to crush dissent at home and sow disinformation abroad, and violent conflicts within and between states have escalated, accompanied by widespread violations of international humanitarian law and impunity for perpetrators of war crimes.

Existing international institutions struggle to protect established rights and adapt principles of human dignity to new global threats.

The war on the Palestinians destroyed the argument that had been used for long periods to promote liberal regimes: that the further spread of these types of regimes would increase the prevalence of peace in the world.

Here is "democratic" Israel and its supporters in the West, liberal governments that sponsor genocide in Gaza.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine reinforced this thesis;

It is presented as a case study in authoritarian aggression and atrocities, and a warning that a world led by illiberal states will be deadly violent, especially for weak democracies nearby.

Biden explained that Ukraine was the central front in a “larger battle for... basic democratic principles”;

So the United States will rally the free world against the "sworn enemies of democracy."

The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union mobilized global rules, institutions, and norms to resist Russian aggression.

In Gaza, these rules are all being violated, and UN institutions are being undermined by the same governments. While the South clings to the rules-based order, the United States and its Western government allies are undermining these rules.

Expanding geopolitical conflicts, civil wars, democratic backsliding in major democracies, rising authoritarianism, xenophobia, increasing political violence, and growing discrimination against minorities all shape the world we will see in the rest of this century.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.