Each October, the United Nations observes Disarmament Week—a global call to reduce weapons, promote peace, and raise awareness about the human cost of armed conflict. Held annually from October 24 to 30, this observance invites governments, civil society, and individuals to reflect on the roots of violence and the pathways to peace. In 2025, as the world confronts escalating conflicts and humanitarian crises, the objectives of Disarmament Week resonate with renewed urgency.
This essay argues that true disarmament must dismantle not only weapons but the global systems that perpetuate impunity and selective justice. It invites reflection on how Palestinianism reframes peace—not as the absence of conflict, but as the restoration of dignity.
Palestinianism as Ethical Framework
Palestinianism has emerged as a global ethical framework. It links Palestinian resistance to struggles for justice worldwide—from South Africa’s fight against apartheid to Indigenous and anti-racist movements. It also exposes the failures of global governance, where law is bent by power, and silence becomes complicity.
Palestinianism insists that disarmament must extend beyond arsenals. It must include the dismantling of the systems that arm injustice: unchecked power, selective law, and institutional silence. In this sense, Disarmament Week is not only about reducing weapons—it is about confronting the ideologies and structures that perpetuate violence.
The war on Gaza illustrates a spectrum of violence prohibited under international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. United Nations agencies and humanitarian organizations have documented patterns including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, destruction of medical facilities, targeting journalists, and denial of humanitarian aid.
Observers describe these violations in layered terms:
- Genocide: Acts that may reveal an intent to erase a people.
- Medicide: The deliberate targeting of healthcare systems and personnel, violating medical neutrality.
- Ecocide: The destruction of farmland and water systems, threatening survival and livelihoods.
- Epistemicide: The silencing of memory through attacks on journalists, schools, and archives—an attempt to erase not just lives but legacies.
These crimes are lived realities, reflecting the erosion of norms meant to safeguard humanity. They reveal what jurists call the “architecture of impunity”: a UN system paralyzed by vetoes, and a world where accountability is rationed by politics.
Expanding the Meaning of Disarmament
The integration of Palestinianism into the discourse of Disarmament Week adds new dimensions to the very definition of disarmament. It shifts the focus from weapons alone to the systems that sustain violence: impunity, silence, and structural inequality. Disarmament, in this light, becomes not only a technical goal but a moral imperative—a commitment to dismantling the conditions that allow injustice to persist. It is about restoring dignity where it has been denied, and ensuring that peace is not built on erasure, but on recognition.
Global Contradictions and the UN Mandate
Palestinianism reveals contradictions at the heart of international governance. States pledge “never again,” yet stand idle as starvation and mass displacement unfold. The International Court of Justice affirms that obligations under humanitarian law are owed to all humanity, yet enforcement remains elusive.
This gap between principle and practice is not unique to Palestine, but it is most brutally exposed there. It raises a critical question: Is international law a shield for the vulnerable, or a tool for the powerful?
Disarmament Week offers a moment to confront these contradictions. It reminds us that peace is not the absence of war—it is the presence of justice. It calls on the international community to uphold the rule of law, protect civilians, and ensure that disarmament is not selective.
Global Solidarity and Recognition
Despite paralysis at the level of great powers, civil society, universities, international organizations, and media across the globe have responded with unprecedented solidarity with the Palestinian people. Student movements have organized teach-ins, professional associations have spoken out, and grassroots campaigns have mobilized worldwide.
Global media outlets have amplified Palestinian voices, countering narratives that erase suffering or normalize occupation. A growing number of governments have also recognized the State of Palestine, affirming the right of its people to self-determination and challenging decades of diplomatic stalemate.
These developments show that Palestinianism is not confined to the Middle East. It is a transnational consciousness, affirming that justice for Palestine and Palestinians is justice for humanity.
Personal Reflection as a Health Professional
As a health professional, I have had the privilege of visiting several Palestinian refugee camps. There, I witnessed not only the daily hardships of displacement, but also the resilience of families determined to preserve dignity under the harshest conditions. Working alongside local health and social organizations, I saw how disabled refugees in particular faced compounded layers of exclusion—yet also how communities mobilized to support them with courage and creativity.
I remember a child in a wheelchair, smiling as he recited poetry in a crowded clinic. His voice was soft, but his presence was defiant—a reminder that dignity resists even in rubble.
These experiences deepened my understanding of Palestinianism as more than an abstract principle. It is lived in the bodies of children denied healthcare, in the aspirations of students studying in overcrowded classrooms, and in the perseverance of families who rebuild after every demolition. Palestinianism, for me, is therefore not only a global framework of justice and peace—it is also a lived ethic of solidarity, rooted in the faces and stories of people I had the honor to serve.
Conclusion: Justice Without Exception
Palestinianism is a call to conscience. It affirms that the denial of rights in Palestine threatens the universality of human rights and the credibility of international law.To embrace Palestinianism is to affirm justice without exception—not as a slogan, but as a standard and a criterion.
