For two years of war, the State of Israel has been able to flatten, kill, and starve the Gaza Strip – almost without restraint – while Western governments have, at most, issued condemnations or imposed minimal sanctions. The primary cost has been borne by Gaza’s civilians, but international institutions and norms have also suffered, losing credibility and standing.A new point of confrontation has emerged between Israel and several Western states over the Netanyahu government’s decision to impose draconian restrictions on the operations of international aid and human rights organisations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. However, this confrontation appears largely symbolic, as the Netanyahu government recognised from the outset that many Western states had already shifted their priorities.Israel has never objected to others shouldering the financial and operational burden of meeting the humanitarian needs of the population in the occupied Palestinian territories, as Israeli governments have usually been unwilling to allocate budgets or personnel for this purpose. What has consistently concerned Israel, however, is the criticism voiced by international organisations – and the credibility of that criticism, stemming from their on-the-ground presence.In addition to providing humanitarian aid, organisation staff were able to document events as they unfolded and gather direct testimonies from Palestinian civilians, without mediation by the IDF spokesperson.From the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, until today, the Netanyahu government has barred free entry of international journalists into the Gaza Strip. Yet staff of international aid organisations were able to speak directly with journalists, openly or as sources, and tell them about the humanitarian catastrophe and the atrocities they witnessed with their own eyes every day. Had these organisations merely carried the burden of Gaza’s humanitarian needs and remained silent, the Netanyahu government would have had no real problem with them.Accordingly, under a new procedure adopted by the Netanyahu government in March 2025, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is empowered to deny registration to international aid organisations seeking to operate in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank if it finds that they deny the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, promote the delegitimisation of Israel, support prosecuting Israeli citizens in foreign states or international courts, or if any of their employees has published – within the seven years preceding the application – a public call to boycott the State of Israel.Even under previous Netanyahu governments, steps were taken to hamper the work of international aid and human rights organisations, primarily through the targeted disqualification of individual employees – for instance, under the 2017 BDS-related procedure. Generally, however, the government stopped short of blocking entire organisations, as the current policy is poised to do, and many organisations quietly accepted the disqualification of individual staff members so long as they were permitted to continue operating.Now, the Netanyahu government believes it will not pay a price for taking more extreme measures. This belief does not appear unfounded: the United Nations is paralysed; Western governments have offered no meaningful response to the sanctions imposed by President Trump on the ICC; they have dramatically cut their humanitarian aid budgets compared to previous years; and they have shown no willingness to replace the “American wallet” after President Trump dismantled USAID and slashed funding to UN bodies and other international organisations.In addition, the Netanyahu government has likely drawn conclusions from the fact that Western governments exerted no real pressure following Israel’s official ban, since October 2023, of Red Cross representatives’ visits to prisons holding Palestinian detainees – despite clear evidence that the Netanyahu government set policies that led to starvation, disease outbreaks, and the ongoing torture of large numbers of prisoners.But international aid and human rights organisations are not merely charities; they constitute a central pillar of the liberal world order established after World War II. They embody the realisation of freedoms of expression and association, and through the aid and support they provide to countless civilians worldwide, they give tangible meaning to the universal values enshrined in international conventions.Accordingly, when Western governments abandon international aid and human rights organisations, they are abandoning the liberal world order and universal values – without offering any alternative. The liberal world order has always been flawed, contested, and unequal, but in the absence of a viable alternative, Western governments are creating a vacuum that could devolve into global chaos. This vacuum may bring more wars and atrocities, pandemics outbreaks, economic and environmental crises, deepening poverty, mass displacement, military coups, and the rise and entrenchment of dictatorships.Moreover, instead of explaining to their citizens the importance of international aid and human rights organisations for national and global interests, many Western governments have at times been slow to respond to conspiratorial claims from the far right, which allege that these organisations operate on opaque interests or on behalf of hidden actors – a narrative that the Netanyahu government has also promoted.Condemnations and posts on X by officials and diplomats from Western countries opposing the Netanyahu government’s decision do not replace the humanitarian aid that will be halted due to the closure of these organisations. Recently, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs announced that the operating licenses of 37 international aid organisations working in Gaza and the West Bank will be revoked.The Netanyahu government and its diplomats claim – without evidence – that most aid does not reach Gaza through these organisations anyway. But even aside from the principled objection to any government interfering with the independent operations of aid organisations, the mere risk that another child or person might die in Gaza is morally sufficient grounds to oppose it. As stated in the Jewish Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5): “Whoever destroys a single life is considered as if he destroyed an entire world; and whoever saves a single life is considered as if he saved an entire world.”Therefore, just as Western governments knew how to impose sanctions on senior Russian officials who persecuted civil society organisations, they must likewise impose serious sanctions on ministers in the Netanyahu government and senior figures in Israel’s military and government ministries who obstruct the work of international aid and human rights organisations in the occupied Palestinian territories. The continued failure of Western governments in the Gaza test, and their avoidance of effective action, are dragging the world and humanity into ever deeper abysses.Eitay Mack is a human rights lawyer and activist based in Jerusalem.