WILL there ever be an end to the atrocities faced by the people of Palestine? What would be the future of the remaining few hundreds children who have lost their fathers and mothers, their sisters and brothers, their homes, their schools as a result of genocidal war imposed on them by Israel? And what about the brutal murder of more than 20,000 Palestinians and what about thousands more still concealed under the debris of their own homes? Certainly no one has answers to all these questions. Feeling the strength of an old saying, might is right, all there in living in the global village seem preferring silence and patience to protest and remonstration. Soon the tales of this all bloodshed in Palestine would settle down somewhere under the fathoms of forgetfulness and certainly this selfish silence would soon give birth to another tale of suppression. But still there are a few ones who desire to keep this world clean of brutalities and cruelties, who have courage to raise their voices against every tyranny and oppression; such people are really like a twinkling star struggling to spread light in the darkening sky. They are the peace activists from around the world who have planned to designate 13th January 2024 as a global day of action for Gaza.
These peace-activists, though small in number, have been holding protests almost all over the world in favour of the helpless Palestinians particularly the people living in the Strip of Gaza. The Gaza Strip is a 41 km long and almost 6 to 12 km wide small area bordered by Egypt on the southwest and by Israel on the east and north. This strip has a total population of around 2 million Palestinians. It is said that this small area has one of the world’s highest population densities. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Gaza is a Muslim majority area with a Palestinian Christian minority. Gaza’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the world but at the same time its population has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. This highest literacy rate is certainly the ever-worst threat to the Israeli policy makers. That is the reason that this area has become target of Israel’s relentless bombing and that is why the strip of Gaza has been facing a siege-like situation for the last many weeks. Before 2005, Gaza Strip was under Israel’s military control but then on international pressure, Israel had to withdraw its forces from Gaza though the United Nations and different international human rights organizations regard the ‘Gaza Strip still to be under military occupation by Israel as Israel still maintains direct control over Gaza’s air and maritime space.’ The UNO still regards the Gaza Strip as an occupied territory. Presently, apparently this area is under the command of the Hamas.
The global day of action, 13th January aims to highlight the worldwide condemnation of Israel’s atrocities in the Strip of Gaza. Reports say that “ Leading human rights groups, aid agencies, and activists have issued a solidarity statement in support of the global day of action, calling on all human rights activists to use the day to make their support for a lasting and permanent ceasefire in Gaza as loud and visible as possible.” A permanent ceasefire and lifting up of siege are the only steps which could bring to an end the slaughter in Gaza. Moreover these steps would help out more than1.7 million Palestinians displaced from their native homes and who are facing grave danger of an outbreak of major epidemics. The basic purpose of the solidarity movement is to mobilize millions of people from all around the world to the streets and materialize this demand of permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
In a recent joint-statement with reference to The Global Day of Action for Gaza, spokespersons of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said, “We need to intensify this pressure by coordinating actions across the globe. We call for a day of action for Gaza on 13 January and support the call from Palestinian civil society to unite to call for a permanent ceasefire, to stop the Gaza Genocide, to end the occupation and dismantle Israeli apartheid. Let us march together in towns and cities across the world for a global day for Gaza on 13 January.” The horrible situation in Palestine particularly in Gaza is not very much different from the situation in the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. A same type of international movement for the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir is also need of the time. The whole world is like a human body; if one part of this body is in pain, it would affect the whole body.
—The writer is Principal of a Government College and senior columnist, based in Multan.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
