At the Munich Security Conference 2026, beneath glittering chandeliers and tight security, diplomacy moved to script — until one question broke it. Dutch parliamentarian Kati Piri asked what many had whispered, but few had dared to say aloud: where is the accountability for Israel’s actions in Gaza? The room did not answer. The question lingered.

Gaza now lies in ruins. More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, the majority civilians, and well over half the population has been displaced. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to grey dust. Hospitals, universities, water systems and bakeries have been obliterated. The UN Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed acts amounting to genocide, citing evidence of mass killing, forced displacement and statements of intent by senior officials.

The International Court of Justice has ordered provisional measures to prevent further acts under the Genocide Convention. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Continuing to arm or diplomatically shield a state credibly accused of genocide carries legal and reputational consequences. For states that derive legitimacy from the language of rules and norms, selective application corrodes credibility and accelerates the erosion of global trust.

Continuing to arm or diplomatically shield a state credibly accused of genocide carries legal and reputational consequences. For states that derive legitimacy from the language of rules and norms, selective application corrodes credibility and accelerates the erosion of global trust.

And yet in Munich, much of the conversation drifted towards ‘what comes next’. Reconstruction. Governance models. A proposed ‘Board of Peace’. The future was dissected while the present remained morally unresolved.

There is a haunting familiarity to this sequence. Devastation. Diplomatic fatigue. A pivot to rebuilding before reckoning. History offers grim lessons about what happens when accountability is postponed in the name of stability. Bosnia’s Srebrenica massacre was initially met with equivocation; only sustained pressure led to war crimes trials. In Rwanda, international hesitation cost 800,000 lives before justice mechanisms were mobilised. Post-war reconstruction without truth risks entrenching grievance rather than resolving it.

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