2025: The Year International Law Went on Vacation

Every New Year we hear the same things… "let the old year go", "let something better come", "let's leave the difficult behind". The problem with 2025 is that it doesn't go away so easily, because what happened wasn't just "difficult times"! It was a year that we will not remember for progress or diplomacy, but for how easily destruction was labeled "necessary", "realistic" or simply… "geopolitically complex". In Gaza, 2025 was recorded as the year genocide was broadcast live. 71,200 dead, mostly civilians, children, women. Hospitals leveled, schools bombed, hunger as a weapon of war. And yet, for the US and the European Union all this fit comfortably under the title "Israel's right to self-defense". International law went on pause, while every voice of solidarity was treated as "extreme" or "dangerous". The war did not stay there, in Lebanon, the fire spread… The clashes on the border, the Israeli bombings and the threat of a general war showed how a genocide never remains geographically limited. Civilians were displaced, villages deserted and the word "destabilization" was used again as an excuse for military escalation. The Middle East as a whole remained a permanent field of conflict. Yemen continued to bleed almost out of international interest, Syria was definitively forgotten, while Iran was constantly the target of threats. Common denominator? Energy interests, billions of dollars in armaments and the well-known logic that some peoples "can withstand" more deaths than others. And Europe gave us perhaps its clearest lesson in hypocrisy. For Ukraine, 2025 continued to approve military aid packages of billions, to impose new sanctions and to talk about "defending international law". But for Gaza, the same Europe settled for "calls for restraint". Member states continued to export weapons to Israel, while other governments criminalized demonstrations of solidarity with Palestine, banned marches and prosecuted students and activists. While the Commission spoke of "humanitarian values", Frontex continued pushbacks of refugees and Europe closed its borders to those trying to escape the same wars it tolerated. 2025 will be remembered as the year silence became a political position. Governments, international organizations and major media outlets chose to look away as the world burned. Not out of ignorance, but out of choice. And if there is one thing 2025 taught us, it is that destruction never comes unexpectedly, it is simply given a different name each time. Because the West's imperialism does not end with the change of year… it is always preparing its next "surprises". So, 2026 already begins with a new American narrative and this time for a "nuclear threat" in Venezuela. Another scenario ready to legitimize sanctions, destabilization and, if necessary, war. But as it is, happy new year!