Palestinians search for people under the rubble in Khan Younis, southern Gaza [Picture: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
The leaders of the “free” world have cemented their position in history on the side of occupying Israel. No clearer has it been that the chiefs of these countries unequivocally throw their weight behind apartheid Israel, as Gaza’s 2.3 million people come under attack for the seventh day in a row.
“We didn’t really know what was going on,” was the echoing refrain within South Africa’s White community when the horrors of apartheid were laid bare at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The same will be said about Palestine.
Except, the world watches while aggression of genocidal proportion is meted out against the people of Palestine – in real-time and even through the cracks of the prevailing narrative in the mainstream media. In today’s age of instant communication, it is hard not to know what is happening – or so it shall be until the world stops hearing from the besieged Gaza Strip when all connection is lost, imminently.
But we still know.
SMread: Thousands show up for Palestine solidarity marches
International response
Sleepy Joe of the United States and the Brown man from Britain have made it abundantly clear they support the merciless killing of children, women and the elderly. Their esteem for the concepts of sovereignty, human rights and the right to defend oneself when these come under threat appears reserved only for the blonde-haired and the blue-eyed. When 1 537 Gazans are killed and 420 000 now have no place to call home. Most of them had nothing to do with Hamas’s long-provoked attack on Israel.
France, the torchbearer of liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) bent over backwards in support of the Zionist regime. Liberty is something one can no longer enjoy as a supporter of the Palestinian cause in France. Freedom of expression was an undeniable right when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was caricatured in 2020, but try staging a demonstration to voice your stance against Israel’s unwarranted genocidal acts in Palestine and see what happens.
American citizens who found themselves in Israel will soon be airlifted out of the warzone. “The United States government will arrange charter flights to provide transportation from Israel to sites in Europe … to assist US citizens and their immediate family members who have, for whatever reason, not been able to provide commercial transit out of the country,” said John Kirby, spokesperson of the National Security Council.
At least they have a chance. Right now, living in Gaza is much the same as having been marched off to the Nazi regime’s concentration camps during the Second World War. It is very much a death sentence as Israeli airstrikes continue to rain down on the enclave, making no apparent distinction between military and civilian targets. They have nowhere to go.
Perhaps the most lamentable lack of condemnation comes from the biggest culprits of indifference: the Arab world. Condemnation is as far as they will go. The elegant white thobes of the Muslim leaders of Saudi Arabia and company are bloodstained.
SMread: Afghanistan grapples with dual quakes
The last resort
The Palestinians, for their part, have given it all they’ve got. They welcomed Jews with open arms after the horrors of World War II; they lived in peaceful coexistence for centuries before that. Under the Oslo process, they even recognised Israel’s existence on what used to be their territory.
Al Aqsa Flood – as Hamas has dubbed the current operation – was an extreme measure taken under extreme circumstances. The hope of a diplomatic solution found at the negotiating table is fast fading. Instead, they have been forced to defend their sovereignty on the battleground.
“This human right [sovereignty] was obstructed by the Israeli occupation and the failure of the international community to stand by their obligation to implement the many UN resolutions that guaranteed the Palestinian rights,” the words of a Hamas leader in a video statement circulated on Thursday.
“Based on this, no one can deny the right of any people under occupation to resist their occupation by all available means, including armed resistance.”
Any concern human rights groups have attempted to raise about the plight of Palestinians is drowned out by the loud bangs of successive Israeli airstrikes. With Gaza’s sole power plant now unable to supply energy to this aid-, food- and water-deprived enclave, its inhabitants are walking a long, lonely and dark road.
