Journalist and researcher Olga Rodríguez gave a talk last week at the José Saramago House Museum in Lanzarote to explain the situation in the State of Palestine and how the genocide carried out by Israel is changing the international landscape. The communicator, specialized in international information, the Middle East and Human Rights, has worked as a journalist in Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Afghanistan, Belgium, the USA, Mexico and Spain and has given an interview to La Voz to analyze the evolution of the international order and the normalization of violence.
Question. How is it possible that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine before the eyes of the entire planet and Western countries are not reacting?
Answer. "There are many Western countries that have chosen to support Israel and continue to do so, such as the United States, which has continued for fourteen years to provide political, diplomatic and military support with the sending of several arms packages to Israel. In addition to having vetoed a ceasefire in the United Nations Security Council on four occasions.
In Europe, there are really many governments that continue to support Israel and the pressure measures that would be needed to stop the genocide in Gaza have not been applied in most cases. We have the example of apartheid South Africa, where a series of measures were applied at the international level that ended up taking effect, such as the embargo on arms, trade and investments that could contribute to apartheid. Then South Africa was suspended as a member of the United Nations Assembly until it complied.
Here we have a ruling by the International Court of Justice last July in which it asks the member states of the United Nations to immediately suspend trade in investments that may contribute to the illegal Israeli occupation.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in September in this regard demanding an end to the illegal occupation within a maximum period of twelve months, that is, until next September 2025. It also asked member states to immediately suspend trade and investments that may contribute to the illegal occupation and Spain voted in favor. The relevant thing is to ask the Government and all the governments of the world that voted yes, what are they going to do to comply with this?"
"What is happening in Palestine is so important because it is changing the world," says journalist Olga Rodríguez.
Question. We are experiencing a violation of rights in real time in Palestine, have we normalized the violation of human rights?
Answer. "It is really being normalized because, in fact, the message that remains in the background is 'you can do it and nothing happens' and that is why what happens in Palestine is so important, because it is changing the world. Spaces for impunity are expanding in a very dangerous way. This is discussed with great concern in international circuits, in The Hague, in New York, in the United Nations or in Geneva.
The message from the West is that 'it should not be avoided, it should be supported and, therefore, 'today it is the Palestinians, tomorrow it could be us'. This is the conclusion, the implicit message.
In 2022, with Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the West quickly reacted with sanctions, suspension of relations and the demand for the arrest of Vladimir Putin, which arrived in record time, very quickly. The double standard is being seen by the societies of the world because not enough time has passed to forget it. People are perceiving an international law that is optional, which only applies to the adversaries of the United States and Europe. [...]
The Canadian Jewish thinker, writer and journalist Naomi Klein calls what is happening 'environmental genocide' because we have really been intended to normalize it as if it were mere background noise. [...]
"There is no greater naivety than thinking that the world will improve through war," says the expert in international information, the Middle East and Human Rights.
Question. And in the case of the Canary or Mediterranean route, is the violation of the rights of migrants being normalized?
Answer. "Another characteristic of our time is the dehumanization and racist institutional policies against migrants, but we are also experiencing in some countries that hatred towards the native population itself, assuming what in sociological terms is known as 'surplus population' and that, therefore, there is no need to apply compensation, aid or social services policies.
It is what Hanna Arent called the banality of evil, which is here and is telling us, according to what was established at the NATO Summit, that migration is a hybrid threat that requires increased spending on defense, just like terrorism. This is buying the entire framework of the extreme right with respect to migrants. [...]
There is a normalization of treatment towards migrants that is improper of the canons of human rights. To this day, Europe itself externalizes borders so that migrants die further and further away from our territories and our consciences, establishing increasingly dangerous routes. [...]
This is a reality of what is happening and instead of trying to imagine a different model of planet, in which there are more dynamics of mutual respect, policies that are not exclusive, those who are warmongering tend to point out and ridicule peace speeches, saying that they are naive when it turns out that there is no greater naivety than thinking that the world will improve through war."
Question. What role do world powers such as the United States, Israel or Russia play in the radicalization of certain social groups and the birth of extremist groups?
Answer. "In the case of the United States, it is a power that has intervened a lot in the Middle East. We know that in its day it armed Islamist groups in Afghanistan from which the Taliban would later emerge, it did so precisely to fight against the USSR in Afghanistan. Subsequently there have been similar strategies in Iraq, money and weapons were given to Islamist groups to counteract the advance of pro-Iranian militias.
In the case of Hamas, Israel, in order to counteract the strength of leftist groups, secular Palestinian groups and Arafat himself, allowed Hamas to do so, born in the heat of the first Palestinian Intifada, and, in that sense, there was an effort to give space to this Islamist formation to counteract the strength that these groups had at that time.
While Russia supported the regime of Bashar al-Assad to the end, but it has another open front, which is its illegal invasion in Ukraine, on which it is focusing. This is the game, Russia's intervention in Syria is clear, not only with the support of the Syrian regime, but with a great alliance in Iran. The rest of the area is with governments, dictatorships in many cases, very marked by US influence and by US action in the region.
It is a very dangerous geopolitical game with terrible sequences, which we always see time and time again that the peoples of the region pay for."
"Israel seeks that escape because it is in war where it can get what international law denies it," says Rodríguez.
Question. There is increasing talk of an arms race and the possibility of a nuclear war or a third world war, is it really possible?
Answer. "We are at a time when the path of war is being normalized. The path of war is presented to us as the only option and the path of warmongering is being bet on in many scenarios, not only in the Middle East. There is also a commitment to the perpetuation of the War in Ukraine, we see that there is not even a desire to speak publicly about the need for channels of negotiation and peace, which gives us an idea of the commitment to continue along a single channel. [...]
There is a risk of a spark igniting, of an accident occurring or an increase in tension. Furthermore, in the case of the Middle East, Israel seeks that escalation because it is in war where it can get what international law denies it, which is the extension of its occupation and the annexation of new territories.
There is a risk that a greater tension could occur that could undoubtedly lead to a consecration. We are already seeing war scenarios where major international powers are intervening, where powers such as Russia or the United States are intervening directly or indirectly, as in the Middle East.
"The more war there is, the more impoverishment for the people. Wars are always lost by the people, they are won by those who get rich from them, who are a minority."
This is a very dangerous game. The possibility of a greater risk of war is being played with, which I do not dare to call a third world war because if the third world war were to arrive, it would probably be a very different model from the one we can imagine in the Second World War, but with a level of commitment to more spending on Defense that will harm societies, because that will imply less spending on social policies and in fact it is already happening in many countries.
This implies more risks for citizens, because the more war there is, the more impoverishment for the people. Wars are always lost by the people, they are won by those who get rich from them, who are a minority. Therefore, we must demand from international and national leaders avenues for peace."
