On May 24, while most Bermudians were enjoying our Bermuda Day, there was some bad news — two incidents of local violence.

On Front Street, early that morning there was a stabbing that caused serious wounding but no death, which Police describe as a domestic incident.

At Horseshoe Bay at about 3pm, a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death. An 18-year-old male has been charged with that murder.

On the global level, notwithstanding the skyrocketing death count, there was some good news on May 24. The International Court of Justice offered a key interim response to the ongoing case brought by South Africa, charging that Israel was committing “genocide” against the 2.4 million Palestinians locked in Gaza. The ICJ’s historic interim ruling was summarised in a Reuters News Service headline: “ICJ Gaza Ruling: Israel was ordered to end its Rafah offensive and to open the Gaza-Egypt Crossing for aid”.

This concluded a week that on May 20 with the other leading United Nations body — the International Criminal Court’s Director of Prosecutions — making a significant announcement. The team of prosecutors, after an exhaustive investigation into the Gaza circumstances since October 7, 2023, had decided to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli president, Minister of Defence and three leaders of Hamas — charging all five with war crimes. This decision is pending final authorisation by a three-man judicial tribunal at the ICC.

The Israeli regime’s reaction to this serendipitous double whammy from the UN’s two highest judicial bodies demonstrates the long-held view by Israel that it is above the law. Israel and its supporters have gone to the long-used playbook of many gangstas of the past in attempting to smear the UN bodies. (Remember months ago that Binyamin Netanyahu claimed that the UN’s humanitarian arm, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was a front for Hamas. Without a shard of evidence, a number of Israel apologists immediately pulled life-saving funds to the agency at a critical time.)

The Israeli prime minister removed the mask during a press conference on the matter when he warned the Director of Prosecutions and his family to be careful in any of their international travels.

This warning is classic Mafia-style bravado by the Zionist leader who spent most of 2023 using various machinations to cancel the authority of the Jewish state’s judiciary, trying to avoid charges of corruption lodged by the Israeli Department of Prosecutions. That action led to weeks of massive demonstrations against Netanyahu’s government, which — surprise, surprise — ended after October 7, 2023.

Within hours of the order by the World Court on May 24 to end the Rafah offensive, the Israeli military dropped incendiary bombs on a “safe zone”, incinerating tents housing Palestinian families. In the conflagration that resulted, at least 45 were killed — mostly women and children. Tragically, this is just another piece of evidence for the courts, a nefarious deed that Netanyahu called a mistake.

Recall former US president Donald Trump’s boast that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. The impunity that Netanyahu has enjoyed because of the cover provided by the elites has global implications since coverage is seen by the whole human family. While this type of reality is nothing new, the ongoing brutality against the people of Gaza — streamed on social media — is accompanied by genocidal boasts of Israeli leaders.

This global ethos nurtures gangsterism among the planet’s most marginalised. Promoting might is right, “otherising” those on the outside, worshipping the bully. Marginalisation, as highlighted by Frantz Fanon, undermines an individual’s sense of self and thus their personal independence. Of course, the phenomenon of gangs in Bermuda involved more, and I agree with the Deputy Commissioner that it requires input from our whole community.

The darkness of Gaza has been answered across the planet in many ways, but none more exemplary than the wonderful student response across the United States, which is now global. The light of this peaceful student movement in the face of the propaganda from elites and the violent reactions by some pro-Zionists and police demonstrates the best of humanity. It is evident that these students, unlike those marginalised, have been able to negotiate a space in which they have accessed their sense of independence.

We’ll continue the theme “Always Learning” and further explore the potential for marginalised members of society to foster transformation in accessing their personal independence.

• Glenn Fubler represents Imagine Bermuda