Melilla, Gaza and International Double Standards

No one in the Jewish state is calling for the UN to treat Spain as it treats Israel. Rather, they’d like to see the UN curb its obsession with and exaggerated responses to Israel.

By Israel Today Staff | | Topics: Gaza
African migrants clash with Spanish authorities at the border of the Melilla enclave.
African migrants clash with Spanish authorities at the border of the Melilla enclave. Photo: EPA-EFE/David Fernandez

At least 23 people were killed and hundreds were left wounded during a clash at the border separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa last Friday.

In Israel, the incident drew comparisons with periodic clashes on the Gaza border, and highlighted the international community’s duplicity when it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

To be fair, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. There are a few glaring differences:

  1. In Melilla, a mob of people are trying to get into a small coastal enclave. In Gaza, they are trying to get out of one.
  2. In Melilla, the mob are desperate and unarmed migrants seeking asylum in Spanish territory. In Gaza, the mob are armed hostiles seeking to harm Israel.
  3. In Melilla, the mob is acting independently, and Moroccan authorities actively helped the Spanish to thwart the incursion. In Gaza, the local Hamas rulers instigate and facilitate the mob assault on Israel’s border.

Given these points, you’d think Israel had far more justification to use deadly force against Gaza rioters than the Spanish did against African asylum-seekers.

And yet, there’s never been a death toll like that in Melilla resulting from any of the Gaza border clashes. But to listen to the mainstream media and international community, you’d think there had been.

The international community and press are by no means ignoring what happened in Melilla. There are plenty of reports on the tragedy, and the UN did call for an investigation into the “avoidable loss of life.”

However, the world body accepted as sufficient internal investigations by both Spain and Morocco. It was deemed unnecessary to set up an official UN commission of inquiry or to vote on a resolution condemning Spain.

As we all know, these are the measures the UN deeds necessary when Israel clashes with Palestinians, even when the casualty figure are far lower.

No one in the Jewish state is calling for the UN to treat Spain as it treats Israel. Rather, they’d like to see the UN curb its obsession with and exaggerated responses to Israel.

Wishful thinking, we know.

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