We live in a world where a singer chanting “Death to the IDF” at Glastonbury is more scandalous than the Israeli death machine actually carrying out genocide. For heeding the call of their conscience, the rap duo Bob Vylan’s visas were revoked, multiple festivals dropped them and they faced interrogated by state authorities. Meanwhile, the US continues to veto any UN Security Council resolution critical of Israel.

Over 200,000 Palestinians have been either killed or wounded, with actual figures likely far higher. Homes, hospitals, schools, universities, libraries, cafes, mosques, churches, graveyards, pipelines, shelters, power plants, media offices – no place, and certainly no person, is exempt from Israeli barbarism. The latest Channel 4 documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, is a harrowing watch for anyone with a conscience.

Gazans are being systematically exterminated. When the pangs of hunger drive them to U.S.- and Israel-backed aid points – or more aptly, death points – they end up wounded or dead. Even when some manage to get food, it is laced with drugs.

Be it food, water, fuel, medicine, surgical supplies, or electricity – Palestinians have grown familiar with every form of deprivation. Gaza has become hell on Earth. The land is running out of space to bury its dead, but the IDF’s bloodlust remains insatiable. Calling the situation “apocalyptic,” UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, accused Israel of using Gaza as a laboratory to test new weapons and military tech. For reporting the truth, she now faces sanctions from the US – a testament to the deep-rooted Zionist influence on American foreign policy.

For Zionists and their Western enablers, history begins on October 7, 2023. But in truth, this genocide’s foundation was laid in the late 19th century with the arrival of the first wave of Jewish settlers. What followed – the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate, the Arab Revolt, the Nakba, the creation of Israel, successive Aliyahs, the rise of illegal settlements, the Intifadas, decades of apartheid, and now this unprecedented destruction – is a history splattered with Palestinian blood. What we have today is a colonised people – caged, bombed, demonised, starved – and a settler state, armed to the teeth, backed by Western powers and the global tech-military-industrial complex.

The times we live in mark the visible unraveling of the so-called rules-based liberal international order. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to India’s cowardly attack on Pakistan in May and its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty; from Israeli aggression against Iran to the U.S. bombing Iranian nuclear sites amid negotiations – all are symptoms of the UN’s failure to rein in predatory states with hegemonic ambitions, drunk on power. Amidst this global chaos, it is imperative that alternative channels for conflict resolution be explored.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the solution to the Palestinian plight lies in military intervention. Yes, people have marched, protested, raised awareness, boycotted, even gone on hunger strikes. While all of that awakened global consciousness, it hasn’t stopped the slaughter.

Gaza needs humanitarian intervention – urgently. If the UN won’t exercise its mandate, it’s long overdue for the global Muslim community to look inward.

It is a shame that the OIC – a bloc of 57 nations and nearly 2 billion people – lacks a military wing, an intervention mechanism, or the capacity to stop atrocities being committed against Muslims. It is time to move beyond hollow condemnations and begin building an emergency humanitarian intervention force, one that acts when the UN is paralysed by geopolitics.

In 2015, the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), a military alliance of over 40 states, was launched with the goal of fighting terrorism, led initially by General Raheel Sharif. The question is: if the Muslim world could create a coalition to combat terrorism, why not create one to stop genocide?

The very existence of IMCTC proves that Muslim states can coordinate and pool military resources, when the political will exists. The infrastructure for collective military action is already in place. What’s missing is moral clarity and strategic courage. If the UN can’t, the OIC should. The international norm of Responsibility to Protect demands it.

This is not a task for a single state. Rather, it requires a coalition of willing and capable Muslim countries, each contributing according to its strengths. Nations with disciplined and experienced militaries, like Pakistan, Turkey and Iran, could deploy troops for humanitarian corridors and civilian protection. Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar could provide the economic and infrastructural backbone of the mission. Others could contribute diplomatically or medically.

As the sole nuclear power in the Islamic world and often heralded as the ideo-symbolic antithesis to Israel, Pakistan can, and should, take the lead in rallying Muslim states to operationalize a rapid-response force to protect the besieged people of Gaza.

Let history remember us as those who took a stand; not as those who merely watched the most documented genocide unfold.