Palestinian pogrom and global hypocrisy

While the systematic persecution and intermittent onslaught by Israeli encroachers have persisted for decades, the ongoing barbarism against the Palestinians is nearing a final phase of extermination. With blatant disregard for all canons of international law, human rights and warfare, Israel has been mercilessly attacking civilians, children, patients, hospitals, schools and religious places. Since the outbreak of the conflict on October 7, Israel has killed over 8,000 Palestinian civilians, including children and women. White phosphorus is being used to burn people to the bone, ambulances carrying injured children are attacked, and around two million Palestinians are locked in the Gaza Strip, awaiting their turn of death. The ongoing blockade, combined with ground and aerial bombardments and the use of carpet bombing, has been reducing Gaza to rubble and a mass graveyard.

Though the surprise attack by Hamas may have perplexed Israel and shattered its long-held myth of invincibility, this didn’t happen in a vacuum. The forced displacement of Palestinians from their own land, along with the killings and creation of the world’s largest open-air prison, was bound to backfire. Tel Aviv was destined to face the consequences of the colonist, capitalist and barbaric policies it has pursued for decades.

However, the ongoing genocide of Palestinians has unveiled the hypocrisy of the world. Amidst the horrifying scene, the world seems to sit idly by, waiting for the annihilation of the remnants of indigenous Palestinian lives. The West, contrary to its claims of liberalism, human rights and humanitarianism, has been supporting Israel’s genocidal moves. The Biden administration has gone even further by arming Israel and defending its actions. The UK and most of Europe have taken no different stance. This points towards a patronised Western move aimed at concluding an ethnonationalist, colonialist design on the Palestinian land. The global support and complacence have encouraged Tel Aviv to unleash the deadliest barbarism of modern times.

Notwithstanding the claims of liberalism, human rights and liberty, today’s world seems to be driven by hypocrisy cloaked in realpolitik. The world, particularly the US and most of its European allies, selectively preaches the values underlying the post-WWII liberal international order. For them, what serves their interests stands right, and the other way around. They deliberately lose sight of the fact that no canon of any law throughout history accords a colonialist and encroaching entity the right to self-defence. This hypocrisy has seemingly brought the world back to a pre-Westphalian system where might determines right.

Similarly, it is shameful to see that despite these genocidal acts, most of the Muslim world, including Pakistan, failed to do the needful to halt the massacre. Like the West, the so-called Muslim Ummah appears to have lost empathy for their fellow human beings who are mercilessly butchered in their own land. This wasn’t the first occasion; many Muslim countries were, until recently, on the verge of recognising Israeli occupation at the detriment of indigenous Palestinian people, as evidenced by the Abraham Accord.

Instead of carrying out diplomatic efforts and using their leverage to broker a ceasefire, they have chosen to express mere words of condemnation, and that too is mostly for public appeasement. Like the UN, the Arab League and the OIC have failed to do their bit. In fact, the deafening silence of the Muslim world has buried the myth of the Muslim Ummah once and for all. And that’s no surprise.

As a result of global complicity, Israel’s aggression and the massacre of Palestinians grow both in extent and intensity with each passing day. Against the backdrop of accelerating genocide, the world needs to awaken to the fact that turning a blind eye to the Israeli genocidal aggression would set a precedent for encroaching on lands with the barbaric force of modern times. Moreover, the worst humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Palestinian territory would afflict everyone living anywhere on the globe. An immediate humanitarian ceasefire, followed by a fair and lasting solution to the issue, is essential for global peace and stability.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2023.

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