Israel must end its illegal settlement and cease its degrading treatment of innocent civilians.
LAHORE: This is with reference to Chris Cork’s article, titled “Unbearable”, published on August 7. I personally agree with the author’s observations. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a ritualistic obscenity. It offends the conscience of humankind. The Oslo Accords are dead. The “peace process” initiated through them is a farce.
Israel must end its illegal settlement and cease its degrading treatment of innocent civilians. It is obvious that a people deprived of even a modicum of dignity will eventually rise in protest and say “enough is enough”. For Israel to take the moral high ground and say that it is responding to a “terrorist” threat is cruel travesty of justice.
People cannot flee Gaza; Israel and Egypt have kept their borders virtually sealed. Residents can flee their neighbourhoods , but even United Nations schools being used as shelters in Gaza have come under deadly fire. And in downtown Gaza, where Israel has urged people to head to for safety, Israeli air strikes have repeatedly hit apartment buildings packed with residents and refugees.
Now, with the death toll for the last three weeks exceeding 1,800 Palestinians — relative to the population, the equivalent of nearly 200,000 deaths in the United States, nearly every Gazan has heard or witnessed shelling and most know someone personally who was killed or injured.
Nonetheless, hope is what Gazans have even at the worst of times. It is the only thing that cannot be taken away from them. The moment they give it up, they lose the most precious thing that nature and humanity have endowed them with. Hope is their only weapon.
Salma Tahir
Published in The Express Tribune, August 8th, 2014.
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