MY dear brother Iftikhar Gilani has written the story of Gaza — it rips the heart apart.
After that, there is nothing left to say. Yes, if there remains any spark of feeling in our hearts, there is still much to do. What? The tasks to be done can be understood only if the full gravity of the situation is comprehended.
News is the means to understand events, but even if the events are reported plainly without “ifs” and “buts,” the full picture of human tragedy does not emerge. That task can only be done by a fiction writer who can, like a painter, portray before the conscience of the world the torment of children crying from hunger, of the old, of women and men. Perhaps Iqbal must have thought of this when he said: If I wish, I could sketch the scene in words—yet that sight is more real than your imagination.
What is happening in Gaza today is more terrible than imagination. If a fiction writer attempts to grasp and describe it, history might accept it, but the contemporary world — its interests neck-deep in other matters — will not believe it. Belief is one thing; it will not even pay attention. Then how will the real picture of the hunger and brutality Israel has imposed on Gaza reach people who still have hearts? Only a person of conscience can do this — someone who will present the apocalypse unfolding in Gaza not as a brief news item but in the language of a feature story. My brother Iftikhar Gilani has done exactly that.
He used his contacts in Gaza: sometimes he spoke to a single person, sometimes he heard the story of a whole family and he described their condition exactly as these oppressed people are experiencing it. Iftikhar Gilani heard on the phone the whisper of an old friend whose stomach had been empty for three days except for air — and then the voice faded away. Those who endure repeated atrocities grow hardened. Iftikhar Gilani himself has seen all this in occupied Kashmir, but even so he did not have the courage to call that friend in Gaza again.
Iftikhar Gilani heard the story of a mother of six who heats sea water on the stove so the children will fall asleep hoping for food, so that her own heart might get a little respite for a brief moment. There is not a single place in Gaza where this is not the story of every home. But alas, there is no one left who can carry a sack of grain on his shoulder like Hazrat Umar to save Gaza’s children from death.
Iftikhar Gilani spoke to many people who sometimes, after many days, got a stale piece of bread. The person is about to bring that foul morsel to his mouth when he sees someone even more deserving and so he gives it away. Thus that poisonous bite sometimes goes into one person’s stomach and sometimes hunger is divided among many. If even a crumb of food reaches the mouths of these oppressed people, it is not to live by human instinct but to survive. Human instinct in Gaza has changed. Reading Iftikhar Gilani’s account, the truth is one loses faith in the world. Eating and drinking feel like hypocrisy, even cruelty — and yet the ears of the world’s judges and the supposed guarantors of peace have not even twitched.
Today, half a million people in Gaza face hunger and death; to save them, 500 food-laden trucks must arrive daily, but the beastly Israeli forces allow only 100 trucks to enter and even those begrudgingly. The food camps run under the supervision of the US and Israel have become nooses of death where thousands have been slaughtered, while at Rafah crossing five thousand trucks are standing even now that Israel will not allow into Gaza. First, nearly a hundred thousand people in Gaza were killed by the gun; now they are being starved to death. This situation amounts to something beyond genocide.
The question is: How will the siege imposed on Gaza by bloodthirsty Israel end? No one has an answer to this, so what should be done? Iftikhar Gilani says: if not now, then never. His proposal is that the leaders of the Muslim world, Europe and the Scandinavian countries must take action to end the siege of Gaza. That action should not be limited to traditional rhetoric and passing resolutions; it has become necessary that they leave their capitals and stage sit-ins at Rafah crossing so food can be delivered reliably to those besieged in Gaza. This step would be extraordinary, without precedent in history.
That perception is correct, but the destruction being wrought in Gaza is itself unprecedented in history. Will the honorable leadership of the Islamic world and the dignified leaders of the West accept this proposal readily? I think not. Public opinion will have to be mobilized for this purpose. Will the people of the Muslim world who feel pain in their hearts come out of their homes to create popular pressure for this noble aim? That is all for today’s column: this is not the time for saying and hearing — it is time for doing.
—This writer is former advisor to the President of Pakistan, author & mass media theorist.
(farooq.adilbhuta@gmail,com)
