A practical way out for Palestinians

As Israel’s Operation Sword of Iron is ramped up with alarming alacrity in response to Hamas’ Operation Aqsa Flood, and as Muslim-majority countries and their inept leaders twiddle their thumbs sitting idly by now is the time not for vacuous sympathies but for bold and decisive action as our world is on the precipice of another devastating Nakba, etymologically denoting “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the grotesque and inhumane displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the life-destroying, soul-sapping 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

The carnage we witness unfold in Palestine is essentially a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other. Tehran deployed the IRGC-QF (Quds Forces), especially their Unit 400, to carry out operations outside of Iran. The Washington Post confirmed that Operation Aqsa Flood took Iran months of advanced planning. Iran, by activating its sponsored Hezbollah and Hamas militias sought to scupper the Abraham Accords (where allegedly Saudi Arabia was on the verge of signing for diplomatic normalisation with Israel). Hamas and Hezbollah also orchestrated the October 7 attack which inadvertently props up PM Benjamin Netanyahu and diverts attention away from his growing domestic unpopularity in Israel including controversial Supreme Court based judicial reforms.

The international community, the Palestinian leadership, Egypt and all relevant UN bodies and the International Red Crescent, as well as humanitarian relief organizations with key stakeholders must urgently establish an emergency aid and humanitarian corridor, including from Jordan’s Wadi Arabia, Allenby bridge and Sheikh Hussein River crossings to provide immediate succor to the deserving Palestinians.

For instance, Türkiye’s Red Crescent has already dispatched emergency convoys and aid supplies for Gazans but Israel is threatening to bomb them to smithereens. Therefore, the international community must protect such humanitarian aid, supplies and corridors through the corpus of international law, namely Article III of the IVth Geneva Convention.

Israel indiscriminately attacks allows campaigners to appeal for humanitarian aid legal recourse, available through the auspices of Article 14 of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Chapter VII of the UN Convention. Israel, as per Human Rights Watch reports, also, with bone-curdling impunity, deployed white phosphorus which burns at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (enough to melt metal) and mercilessly incinerates humans to their bare bones, illegal in civilian areas and a flagrant contravention of Protocol III and the Chemicals Weapons Convention. Israel violated the concept of “proportionality” under international law and activists can lodge cases against Israel on these grounds via the ICRC’s Rule 14 which Tel Aviv contravened by ‘excessive use of force’.

As we are on the cusp of a humanitarian crisis and a genocide is unfolding before our very eyes, it is high time that Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi opens up the Rafah border crossing (obviously incrementally done and meticulously security-vetting all entrants by Egypt’s Border Guard Corps who are part of Egypt’s Interior Ministry). UN monitoring teams can also be dispatched urgently. This would be similar to how Pakistan vets refugees (especially these days) via its Spin Boldak, Chaman, Badini, Ghulam Khan and other border crossings.

The Egypt-Israel Al-Rafah border crossing must be opened as it is the only crossing left available to millions of distraught Palestinians who are protecting life and limb, kith and kin, and have brazenly and brusquely been uprooted from their homes, lives and occupations, with even the most basic life amenities like water, electricity, medical supplies and internet connections cut off. Palestinians are deprived as Israel’s Operation Sword of Iron retort has been grotesquely disproportionate.

Mr El-Sisi must fast-track and swiftly absorb the refugee intake, especially of women and children, and leave the option of military fighting aged men to stay on and defend Palestine tooth and nail. Obviously, Palestinians will need help from the Ummah (international Muslim community) in order to defend Gaza. This can be achieved by deploying, on an emergency basis, the Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) headed by Pakistan’s former army chief, Mr Raheel Sharif. If the IMCTC just offers declaratory rhetoric without backed-up concrete action, its purpose and raison d’etre will severely come into question. Already the OIC has been critiqued as being toothless, paper tiger and a glorified talking shop. The Muslim-majority Ummah must prepare additional, combat-hardened reserve armies for moments like this.

I emphasise that women and children must be allowed into countries and men must remain, as totally escaping from persecution (especially of male adults) from Gaza to neighbouring states will allow Israel to totally confiscate Palestinian land and declare an ‘easy victory’ — something that has especially been a covert objective of Israel’s extreme-right Likud party and hardcore Kahanist government as well as their intelligence apparatus from Mossad, Aman, the Shabak (Israel’s equivalent to the FBI), the Israel Defence Forces (notably elite unit 8200) and the entire Shin Bet intelligence apparatus.

The time for rhetoric is over. It is time for a collective global community to act decisively. It’s now or never.

Palestinians do not need “assurances”; they require “decisive action”. A failure to prevent this human tragedy will bitterly be immortalised in the annals of history. History is never kind to Apartheid regimes. South Africa and today’s India remain stark and vivid examples.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2023.

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