Kęstutis Girnius. When will it be the right time to criticize Israel's actions in Gaza?

"Lithuania is one of Israel's most consistent supporters. At the end of May, the vast majority of European Union (EU) countries approved a resolution to review the cooperation agreement with Israel over alleged human rights violations in the Gaza Strip. Even normally loyal Israeli supporters like the Netherlands voted in favor. Lithuania was among the minority that voted against the resolution. It maintains very close ties with the Jewish state, and last week Lithuania solemnly received Israeli diplomat Gideon Saar.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys recently stated that the time is not yet right for actions such as the EU resolution on the cooperation agreement. But will it ever be the right time for K. Budrys to openly criticize Israel's actions in Gaza?

The Gaza Health Ministry claims that more than 57 thousand people have already been killed as of July 1, about 60 percent of them women, children and seniors. Studies by European epidemiologists conclude that as many as 100,000 Palestinians may have died. Israel is restricting food supplies to Gaza, even though modern international criminal law considers the starvation of civilians a war crime, a crime against humanity, or an act of genocide.

Amnesty International, an international non-governmental human rights organization, found sufficient grounds in November last year to conclude that Israel is committing genocide, treating the Palestinians in Gaza “as an inferior group, unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intention to physically destroy them.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called Israel a “genocidal state” and declared that Spain “will not have business dealings with such a country.” Lithuania seeks to expand those ties.

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, accused Israel of being responsible for “one of the worst genocides in modern history” and called on countries to impose an arms embargo and cut off trade with the country.

What actions could change Budrys’s stance, convincing him that now is the right time? A week ago, an Israeli plane hit the al-Baqa cafe in Gaza City, which had been open throughout the conflict and was full of women and children at the time. The super-powerful bomb killed about 40 people and left a crater at least two meters deep. There may be another similar cafe, and until Israel razes it to the ground, Budrys will continue to insist that it is not yet the right time to criticize Israel.

The health care system is degraded. At least 94 percent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed. Only a few overcrowded hospitals are open, lacking the most basic medicines and forced to treat the wounded in the corridors after major Israeli attacks. Perhaps the time will not be right for K. Budrys until at least one hospital continues its work, albeit in the most terrible conditions?

How many Palestinian newborns, infants and toddlers must starve before K. Budrys decides that the time is right? They will not die of starvation, but constant hunger, the lack of access to milk, meat, fruits and vegetables will have indelible negative consequences for their health for many years, if not their entire lives. How long will K. Budrys insist that it is not yet the right time to put pressure on Israel to ensure normal food and other supplies to Gaza?

The target of the denial of food and other supplies is not Hamas fighters, who will somehow get their food, but the civilians of Gaza - non-combatants in the truest sense of the word. When they become targets, we need to protest, try to protect them in some way, or at least condemn those who illegally persecute them. But, according to K. Budrys, the time is not yet right.

The grim situation is perhaps most clearly illuminated by these data. Compared to other wars of this century, Gaza leads in the ratio of killed combatants to non-combatants, as well as in the number of deaths compared to the number of inhabitants. The share of women and children killed is more than twice as high as in almost all other recent conflicts. It is not surprising that Israel is increasingly accused of genocide.

K. Budrys knows, or at least must know, what Israel is doing in Gaza (and to a much lesser extent in the West Bank), so why is it silent and how does it justify its appalling indifference to the killing and suffering of Palestinians? I don’t know, and maybe he himself doesn’t know. People often avoid honestly examining their conscience on sensitive issues, because acquittal is unlikely.

Like most Lithuanian leaders, K. Budrys is probably convinced that it is important to maintain good relations with Israel, that a policy of support wins favor in Washington, and that critical statements or support for plans to increase pressure will not have a serious impact, because Israel will ignore them. They probably still feel some guilt about Lithuanian participation in the Holocaust. There are reasons that explain Lithuanian policy and K. Budrys's positions, but there are no arguments to support them. K. Budrys is deeply involved in the position of minister, not only implements but also shapes Lithuania's foreign policy, and also enjoys the attention of the foreign press. He inevitably bears responsibility when this policy does not correspond to simple decency. Talking about a foreign policy based on values ​​is a misunderstanding or mockery. Active support for Israel, when there is no danger to the country and when its armed forces constantly violate the rules of war, raises the suspicion that K. Budrys does not have a moral compass or, if he had one, he has lost it.

It is a pity that Lithuania, having borne the burden of occupations for so long and painfully, has so quickly become an apologist for repression and killings. To claim, as K. Budrys does, that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip cannot be ignored, but to do so immediately, shows that the demands of morality in this matter are secondary to him, if not completely alien to him.”