It is now almost five months since Israel began pounding and destroying Gaza, with the death toll fast approaching 30,000. None of the United Nations bodies can stop Israel even as it now plans to assault Rafah in Gaza, where 1.4 million people live, including many who have been displaced multiple times since the war started.

The Palestinians in Gaza, and in the occupied West Bank – where Jewish settlers, with the help of Israeli soldiers, have been killing and evicting Palestinians – are practically alone in this world.

The rest of the world is left to helplessly watch the atrocities happening before their eyes through television and videos streaming on the internet. The bombings and destruction, the deaths and the injuries and the crying of exasperated children and women have become daily staples on television and online since October. Genocide will soon become normalized if it has not already.

The UN is rapidly losing its credibility and soon its influence to ensure peace and stability around the world, although not for lack of trying. The Security Council has rejected almost all resolutions against Israel pertaining to the conflict in Gaza because of the United States exercising its veto rights.

The General Assembly has done slightly better, coming up with several resolutions denouncing Israel and demanding a cease-fire. The International Court of Justice ICJ) in its provisional ruling last month referred to the ongoing Israel operation in Gaza as leading toward a genocide.

None of this has made any difference. Israel continues to defy various UN resolutions against the Jewish state and even international public opinion, as expressed by the massive street protests in capital cities around the world, including Washington, DC, London and even Tel Aviv.

The Israeli siege on Gaza continues, and will likely continue, until, as proclaimed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the release of all Israeli hostages captured by Hamas rebels on Oct. 7. Brace for even more brutal killings if and when the assault on Rafah takes place, which could be any day now.

Many governments continue to place their trust in the UN, as incapacitated as it is, in the absence of an alternative.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is scheduled to deliver a short statement at the ICJ this week. Indonesia has been an ardent and consistent supporter of an independent Palestinian state. This is an important gesture of Indonesia’s moral support for the Palestinian people. This, and the recent sending of a ship carrying relief supplies are the least that Indonesia could do. We sure would do more given the opportunity.

Let’s not discard the UN bodies just yet. Indonesia and the rest of the world must fight harder the diplomatic battles through the UN to end all wars and atrocities, and to demand the 15-member Security Council use the power and authority entrusted to it to ensure global peace and stability.

We already saw the Security Council failing to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now we are seeing it failing the Palestinian people. These failures are sending the wrong message to the world, not only about how impotent the world bodies have become, but more dangerously, for ambitious leaders like Netanyahu and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, that you can get away with invasion, occupation and even genocide.

The global public in the meantime is being served 24/7 with news and information, with hoaxes or otherwise, through their TV and computer screens. It is a dangerous path to becoming completely desensitized to these human tragedies and the next ones, including the one imminent in Rafah.