 Print
Palestinians Want Actions Not Cliches
8-27-2022
“Our children have the right to live in peace and security.” Dozens of people held such placards at a vigil held by Najim family, at the cemetery in Gaza, whose four children were killed in a raid during the three-day Israeli assault from August 6 to 8.
It is incomprehensible that in this day and age of social media, and global sharing of information which had never been imagined in past. Yet, Israel continues to terrorise Palestinians, especially in Gaza Strip with absolute impunity while thumbing its nose at the international community of world leaders, United Nations, Muslim world, thousands of NGO’s who constantly preach to the world about the value of upholding and respecting human rights etc. and from the general public.
It is reprehensible that the entire world remains tone-deaf to the cries of the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel every few months decides to go in and use Gaza Strip as a live exercise for its military.
The worst part of it is that Israel is not even shy about it. It preplans its well executed and well targeted military invasions into Gaza every few months which can maximize inflictions upon the Palestinians by targeting civilians, especially children.
Israel knows the worst reaction from the international community for its deplorable acts would simply be limited to candlelight vigils, street protests, and an anti-Israeli hashtag on twitter for a day or two – The end!
We are just as complacent in these repeated acts of terrorism being carried out on Gaza as Israel, by our mere silence.
We are just as complacent in these repeated acts of terrorism being carried out on Gaza by not compelling our political leadership to take actions against Israel for its repeated violation of international human rights laws.
We are just as complacent in these repeated acts of terrorism being carried out on Gaza as Israel by repeatedly electing those politicians whom we know have a “soft-corner” for Israel and have a proven record of remaining silent when it comes to speaking against Israel.
Let’s review Israel’s current military adventure into Gaza that killed five innocent Palestinian children.
Leading up to the August 6 attack, Israel stopped the planned the transportation of fuel into Gaza which crippled the territory’s only power plant, forcing load-shedding – limiting electric supplies to few hours a day. Health officials issued warning that hospital services would be severely impacted.
This was clearly a preplanned invasion where Israel wanted to maximize damage over Gaza and create havoc and that is exactly what it did – attack Gaza. The director of Gaza’s main hospital, Mohammed Abu Salameh desperately warned that there were “acute shortages of medical supplies” after hundreds of Palestinians were injured in an Israeli attack.
No one paid any heed to Ms. Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Chief for the for the occupied Palestinian territories repeated calls for “fuel, food and medical supplies.”
2 killed and 32 people wounded, including children in city of Rafah. According to some United Nations humanitarians something with a big acronym UNOCHA forty families have known to have been displaced. Meanwhile, the Israeli jets continue pounding Gaza injuring 125 and killing 24 Palestinians, including 6 children.
Israeli assault on Jabalia resulted in 5 deaths, 3 of them children.
“This happens to be the most violent of the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since Friday,” said Yumna ElSayed, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza City. “All day today, the Israeli strikes were based on targeting civilian homes and direct targeting of civilians.”
Ms. Francesca Albanese, The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory has condemned Israel’s attack on Gaza, calling it a “flagrant act of aggression.”
“As international law only permits the use of force in self-defence, Operation Breaking Dawn is a flagrant act of aggression. Illegal. Immoral. Irresponsible.” Francesca Albanese tweeted on Saturday.
The western democratic leaders taking their lead from the US usual statements under these circumstances, “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself, the US Department of State says, while urging all sides to avoid further escalation in Gaza.”
The real fact of the matter is there is general elections in Israel in November, where Hardliner, Benjamin Netanyahu “appears to be slated to make a comeback.” Reported AlJazeera, “The Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, and Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, want to look tough. That is one of the cards that their opponent Netanyahu will use. They will say, ‘No, we’re tough, we’re willing to do these kinds of things too.’ But if Tel Aviv is facing air raid sirens, then that’s not going to go down well,” said Daniel Levy, who is also president of the US/Middle East Project, an organisation based in London and New York.”
Palestinians are being bombed and killed because of the Israeli election’s tug of war, where one candidate for the PM wants to demonstrate to the voters that he can be just as tough as the other bad guy. Meanwhile, western leaders and western media are turning a blind eye to the reality and are misleading the public that this was an act of self-defence by Israel and that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
We believe, time has come where the international community, especially Muslim leadership and Muslims across the world start taking more interests in what is happening in Palestine, Kashmir, China, Chechnya, and other places in the world. Places where Muslims are being terrorized because of their faith and acquire factual knowledge of the issue to learn about the ground reality and speak out against it with facts, rather than simply carrying placards with recycled cliches.
Footnotes:
|