‘There is no greater religion than human service and to work for the common good is the greatest creed’ – Woodrow Wilson, an American politician and academic who served as the president of the United States.
Do we realize where we are heading to in reverence of ideologies and power? We have failed as ‘humans’ in the scrimmage of being hungry for land. This notion isn’t specific to Israeli attacks in Palestine; rather every individual who has been normalized to the loss of human lives and everyone who supports the cruelty is equally a part of it. It’s time to let slip the supremacy of authoritarianism and voice out together for fellow nations in utter suffering and pain.
Jews came into the land of Palestine and spread vastly while occupying the areas for the Zionist. The people who already belonged to the area either had to leave or die. Jews pulled down around 400 Palestinian towns. They came to the Palestinians in hope of shelter and safety after being shattered by the Nazis in Germany and to that Albert Einstein states, ‘It would be my greatest sadness to see Jews do to Palestinians much of what Nazis did to the Jews’. His words seem to be an early elaborated expression of the violence that prevails till date. The Jewish refugees occupied the territory by bombing civilians and their resources out of the Palestinian land in 1948 while evicting its inhabitants and replacing them with Zionist from various parts of the world. As reported in an article on BBC ‘Palestinians call 1948 “the Catastrophe” where Up to 750,000 Palestinians were made to flee or were expelled from the land that became Israel. Those Palestinians were never allowed back’. Later in 1967, Israeli’s occupied the remaining lands of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the west bank while placing the Palestinians under oppressive military rule, presiding over every aspect of their daily lives. Palestinian refugees were told to join in the shacked camps of Jordan and Lebanon.
Now entails the thought as to what can help in enlightening the general public. The most effective source is ‘the media’, but are they playing an adequate role? Why is there such an undue demand to shut down content against Israel on social media and why can’t the mass media productions openly condemn the Israeli acts? Loyalty of worldly powers goes where the money is and thus it is all the monopoly of ultimate power that Israel’s economic policies hold over the world. The most powerful nations rely on the businesses operated by the Jews around the globe. As Ariel Sharon so eloquently phrased it, “We control America”. Doesn’t your mind urge you to think what makes them stand so firm on the ground for all the bombarding? No, it’s not because they’re innocent in fighting for their rights rather the advantage of the power they behold. The millions of dollars invested in the media have been doing an excellent job in promoting one-sided propaganda. Yellow journalism has exceeded in setting an agenda for media where they lean towards soft corners for the Israeli oppression while highlighting the opponent strikes.
The Israeli power is well aware of how the forces in the world are powerless against them, inclusive of the UN as Israel holds American veto to block any condemnation of their war crimes. There were various reports on BBC that state how ‘Hamas launched rockets on Israel and killed 9 innocent people’. What about the thousands they have been killing during the excessive bombarding? Moreover, the iron dome enabled them to get rid of all the rockets in the air, what’s all the noise about? Israeli bombarding can abolish their towns and push the nation to the brink of extinction but anything that comes forth in retaliation seems to be more problematic for the super powers. There’s no one liable to answer all the ‘terrorist’ acts of the Israeli nation rather condemn what’s happening to their nation in vengeance. The American linguist Noam Chomsky states, ‘with all due exceptions, Israel is a ‘rogue state’. At one point, he described Gaza’s living conditions as being worse than the Bantustans, the so-called homelands of apartheid South Africa. He later referred to Israel’s actions in sealed-off Gaza as a campaign of extermination’.
The issue of Palestine is reminiscent of old school colonisation that we see in our time. Nothing is to criticize the Jewish beliefs but the policies they made to eradicate a nation and occupy their land by wrong means. The problem is to be able to question the political school of thought involved that encourages the violation of basic human rights.
In Jerusalem, under the Muslim rule, all Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in harmony. The chaos came about as a result of the spread of Zionism. The Zionist claims that the region only belongs to them and that makes the nation apartheid. It’s more like saying that the white people belong to America and the native Indians have nothing to do with this, this is racism! It’s like the white Europeans who told the blacks that they have no right to be living in their land. Jimmy carter, the 39th president of America states that, ‘Israel is the only apartheid country operating even today.’ Who knows more than Nelson Mandela what apartheid is? He states, ‘the Palestinian people are facing a struggle in ways even worse than the black south Africans.’ This is coming out from neutral opinion leaders around the world!
When people say that we don’t accept the legitimacy of the country of Israel, it’s because of the mechanism of how this took place, it’s because the people were forcibly removed, it’s because people who didn’t own the land decided who should get the land (Europe as a third party) what right does Europe or England have to do this? Jimmy Carter says, ‘Gaza and the open territories are the largest open air prisons in the world.’ You have forced them out of their homes while taking away every hope and opportunity yet you wish to see nothing in reaction? Mark Ruffalo, one of the famous Avengers says in a tweet, “Over 30 children killed. Mothers died. Hundreds injured. We are at the brink of a full scale war. Sanctions on South Africa helped free its black people- it’s time for sanctions on Israel to free Palestine. Join the call!”
To a point when a mind might indulge in the thought of healthy negotiation, freedom and peace there’s always the contradictory factor that negates the land occupiers with missiles, bullets, tanks and F-16s to obliterate. Dr Norman Finkelstein, an American political scientist, activist and former professor states, ‘Israel has the fourth strongest army in the world, possessing nuclear weapons. How dare your children confront their oppression with stones, don’t you know Israeli soldiers won’t hesitate to blow their heads off?’ He further narrates, ‘Israel has placed your towns under siege, confiscated your lands, uprooted your trees, demolished your homes, and you still demand freedom? Don’t you get the message? You will never have peace or freedom, because this is Israel!’
More power to the wide spread digital world that we are informed through content generated via various social media users. If the information was only dependent on the crude exaggeration of televised media channels we would never have known about colonialism in Israel in its most brutal and raw forms.
What does the conflict clearly depict? Our media channels and we as individuals have been a part of this barbaric suffering one way or the other. In the endless hunger for more we somewhere lost the little that we had, we failed altogether to aid our minds for a healthier tomorrow rather inflamed toxic relations around the globe. John Lennon, a British peace activist and a singer once said, ‘All we’re saying is give peace a chance’ and that hit me hard in view of the fact that nations at war with others are never in tranquility and wise growth themselves.