Barrister Nazir Ahmed :
On the day of writing this article, Israel has continued its brutal and barbaric offensive on the Gaza Strip for the 15th consecutive day. It has continued the policy of collective punishment in total disregard for the international law and humanitarian law (which ensure protection for civilians in times of war), and in violation of the principles of necessity, proportionality and distinction. Israeli forces have continued their aerial, ground and sea attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, causing more death and civilian casualties, and damaging civilian facilities, including houses, hospitals and mosques.
Israeli forces have launched unprecedented attacks on Al-Shuja’iya neighbourhood in the East of Gaza City. The neighbourhood has been subjected to intensive aerial and ground shelling. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed or wounded, and medical crews and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have not been able to attend them. Women were seen taking their children out to flee from the area, and while doing so some of them were killed. People who were not able to leave the area have been trapped under the Israeli shelling and their destinies are unknown. At least 200 people have been killed and 500 have been wounded in Gaza’s Shujayea district alone, in the heaviest barrage of tank shells since Israel launched its ground invasion last Thursday – and the number increases every minute.
More than 1300 Palestinians (including children, women, the elders and people with a disability) have been martyred since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza, of whom almost all of them are civilians. More than 5,000 (including children, women and elders) have been wounded. Due to the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, the number of homes fully destroyed numbers 1,007 and the number severely damaged is 915. Also 17,460 houses have been damaged partially in air strikes in Gaza, directly displacing thousands of people. More than 79 schools and 23 health facilities in Gaza have sustained damage. Around 27 Masjids in Gaza were damaged. There are more than 60,000 displaced persons seeking refuge in 49 UNRWA shelters. Over a hundred thousands people are now at risk of losing access to water and electricity supply. The number of deaths, casualties and destroyed houses is increasing round the clock. By the time this article is published, these numbers could have doubled or even tripled.
We are shocked at and ashamed of the deep silence of the Muslim world, influential Middle East countries, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). There are around 57 Muslim countries and over one and half billion Muslims in the world. How can they remain silent and merely watch, as bystanders, Israeli barbarism and atrocities on Palestinians?
Although there have been some public rallies and demonstrations around the Muslim world, the roles the rulers of those countries have played are extremely hopeless and have to be utterly condemned. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are the biggest countries in the region. Acting together, their joint strengths and unity could have had some impact – but their silence has, directly or indirectly, helped Israel. Shame on them.
The Arab League was formed to protect and promote Arab nations and the OIC was founded to promote the causes and interests of the Muslim nations. Both organisations have already proved to be toothless tigers – with no backbone. What is the point of having such useless organisations if they cannot help their member states or citizens of Muslim countries during a time of extreme difficulty? If they had good intentions, commitment and determination, the Muslims countries could have formed a strong world class defence fact like the NATO.
We are equally dismayed and appalled having seen the apparent partial, one sided and biased role of the western media. The atrocities and barbarism of Israel do not appear to have sufficient merit or importance to be featured in the media, let alone be on the headlines. Hundreds of women, patients and children were brutally and indiscriminately killed and massacred in Gaza in the span of a few days time. This does not seem to be important enough to be in the front line of the media. Rockets launched from Gaza to Israel, with the result that no one was even killed so far, appears to be so important that it has to be in the headlines. Israel has violated at least 65 UN resolutions. It has been violating Geneva Convention repeatedly. It used chemical and poisonous weapons on civilians, destroyed hundreds of villages, killed 7,000 civilians in just 10 years, forced natives of a land to become refugees in their own land and enforced a blockade on those refugees and attacked anyone who came to provide humanitarian aid to them. Yet, Israel is the victim in the eyes of the western media! On the other hand, Palestinians were thrown out of their own home. They lost children to Israeli bullets. Their schools, hospitals and even refugee camps are bombed regularly. They are living in subhuman conditions without proper food, electricity, water or shelter and anyone who comes to provide basic necessities of life is stopped by an Israeli blockade! Yet, Palestinians are seen as “terrorists” in the eyes of western media! Shame on the double standards of the western media.
Saturday, 19th July 2014 was the day of national demonstration in support of the innocent victims of Gaza. The rally/demonstration started from in front of the Downing Street and ended near the Israeli Embassy. More than 100,000 people regardless of faith, colour and race attended the demonstration and its subsequent rally. Leading human rights activists, community leaders and politicians spoke at the rally. The BBC and other British media have almost completely ignored such a big, peaceful gathering of the British public. This is an irony.
The Muslims’ fasting month of Ramadan started four weeks ago. It will continue few more days. During Ramadan, Muslims generally become generous in giving donations and charity. All community based TV Channels have been very busy, almost every night, collecting donations for the needy, oppressed and injured people of Gaza. Tens of millions of pounds have been raised so far by various charitable organisations. Many more will be raised in the UK, as well as throughout the world. No doubt, people in Palestine in general and in Gaza in particular urgently need donations for food, shelter and medical treatment. I would urge all able persons to come forward to help the people of Gaza, the most needy persons on the earth.
Often we do not appear to go to the root of the problems. Of course, the needy and victims of Palestine are in dire need of help and assistance. At the same time, everything must be done to stop Israel from doing what it has been doing for more than 50 years. Millions of pounds are sent to build houses, mosques, hospitals and roads – which Israel then destroys, with a short or no warning at best, by modern, sophisticated, deadly weapons. How long does this have to be tolerated? Israel seems to be above all international laws. It has violated numerous UN resolutions so far. At the same time, dozens of resolutions could not be passed in the Security Council of the UN due to veto of the USA.
The apparent dubious and nonsensical role of the USA and UN about the Middle East has made the matters worse. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, a member of the NATO for 62 years (NATO was formed in 1949 and Turkey has been a member since 1952), launched scathing attack on the UN and the Security Council for remaining silent on Israeli brutality (deaths in Gaza climbed to 333 on day 12 of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge). The UN’s and US’s selected words and phrases such as “we urge both sides to restraint” or statement starting with “Israel has right to self defence” or “Israel has right to exist” have made Israel become more ferocious. The UN or USA statement “we urge both sides to restraint” would have been directly relevant, fair and proper if “Israel and Palestinian had equal military power or strength” or “with similar casualties” – for example, if 500 to 600 Palestinians were killed at the same time as around 500/600 Israelis had been killed.
There would be no peace in the Middle East unless the UN, US and UK significantly changed their attitude, stand and position. There will be no peace without justice. And there would be no justice so long the superpowers continued to take the side of mighty force, for laws will not be able to take their own course. For superpowers which, directly and indirectly, take the side of Israel, international human rights and the principles of justice, fairness and the abiding by the rule of the games appear to be inapplicable to Palestinians. Given these ongoing trends, I do not see any viable solution to these conflicts in the foreseeable future.
Solutions may perhaps come in one of the four ways. Firstly: if the superpowers – specially the UN, US and UK – do not take the side of Israel or take a purely neutral position, a solution will easily come out. Secondly: if Palestinians were put on equal footing with Israel in term of military might, a solution would be certain to come out. If the Palestinians had exactly the same amount of armour, tanks and missiles – and possibly nuclear weapons – that Israel has, then Israel would have been compelled to kneel down and show restraint. They would not dare to flout international laws and UN resolutions, for Palestinians could respond to their arrogance and flout. Thirdly: Al-Aqsa is one of the three nerve centres of the Muslim world. As such, the Muslim world should speak in one strong voice. If the powerful Muslim nations were to speak in the same language and support Palestinians by all means possible, a solution would be bound to come. Fourthly: we would need a repeat of divine intervention, which Allah (SWT) did to the nation of Aa’d and Sa’mud. The first three options do not seem to have a chance of happening in the foreseeable future. That leaves us only the last option to hope for!
(Barrister Nazir Ahmed: a UK based Legal expert, analyst, writer and columnist. He can be contacted via e-mail: [email protected])
