Tremors of a Palestinian Holocaust
Close your eyes, imagine for a moment. You are a Palestinian child lying in your bed, your hands clutched to your chested as you hear the deafening bombardments of rockets, “Allah u Akbar, La ilaha illa Allah”, Allah is the greatest, there’s no God but Him, you whisper. Hoping that you survive to see a tomorrow.
Take two. One moment you are standing in your prayers, your eyes fixed towards the ground. Then comes a sudden uproar, scorching pain and screams. When you come to your senses, you look around in terror only to find your vision fading steadily, a few moments later there is nothing but darkness. Alas, you no longer are alive.
Take three, imagine waking up in the morning, finding yourself lying in ashes instead of your bed, hearing nothing but the sounds and screeches of rockets striking your street.
As Israel continues to rain down rockets on Gaza, as the Palestinian death toll continues to hike, as Al-Aqsa bleeds, as the tremors of a Palestinian Holocaust quakes the world intensely, our void of helplessness becomes wider and darker. It’s been two weeks since the Israeli soldiers stormed in Al-Aqsa Mosque attacking unarmed, peaceful worshippers on the most revered night of the holiest month of Ramadan and haven’t looked back since. Thus, once again Palestine bathes in the blood of its loved ones, its people left to mourn and carry the tiny coffins of its children while the world watches.
Ironically, these people, (exclusively referring to the Zionists that support Israel’s actions, I do not support anti-semitism by any means) who a few decades ago were the victims of the fascist Nazi regime are echoing the same tendencies of their oppressors, committing the same crimes that were perpetrated against them, aiming to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in the same manner their forefathers were massacred
George Orwell in his novel 1984, used a term for the peoples who were expunged by the state and their vanishings were not allowed to be discussed — they were called the “unpeople”. Today, the Palestinians and the Kashmiris who are being mercilessly erased are the real unpeople.
Ah, The Mighty West
Today, as Israel razes apartment buildings, hospitals, media houses in Gaza, butchers innocent civilians, and wipes out entire neighbourhoods, the self-declared champions of human rights, the Great West remains silent. They do nothing except chanting the mantra that has been recited by a long line of their predecessors: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Well, there’s a kind of unacknowledged truth in here that an extreme military imbalance exists between the two sides, I wonder if self-defence allows a country to bomb toddlers and the disabled into pieces. Referencing the history of this occupation, we must acknowledge that this genocide is the nothing but another making of these human rights watchdogs, owing to the Balfour declaration who since decades, have colonized and divided countries according to their national interests in every region they have been to, history is the undeniable evidence for this claim. It is the West that had originally engineered this conflict by placing a Jewish state right in the middle of multiple Arab nations to use it as means to protect their interests (read oil instead of interests). Unfortunately, the power to right the wrongs also lies in the hands of these nations who have become the killing fields of rights where morality and humanity are publicly executed in the name of Radical Islamic Terrorism.
And of the Muslim world? What is the Muslim World doing to put a halt to this slaughter? Why are the Arab states so hesitant to speak and help the Palestinians living under the brutal apartheid regime? How Israel, a tiny illegal state surrounded by a pack of Arab states can oppress an ancient nationality and steal their land? Why have the Arab states begun to normalize their relationships with a Zionist entity that seeks the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? Well, I believe that amongst a plethora of reasons, there are two that stand out the most and co-incidentally both hold a firm link to each other. The first one is something that we all know, the grotesque love affair between the US and Israel and its unwavering support for the oppression of Palestinians. The second reason is the enormous influence of the West on modern Muslims. As a result, we Muslims have become the biggest importers of the West. We love to eat, sleep and live in their colours. Our sub-conscious romanticism has reached a point where we are ready to let go of fundamental Islamic teachings in the name of liberalism. We have lost our identity and history in the yearning of embracing Western teachings and lifestyle. And the consequence of this massive Western influence? The Palestinians have been left high and dry, deserted and abandoned by the Arab and the Muslim World. They have been left behind to fight their fight with nothing to attack with except for stones and sticks. The frail response by the Muslim Ummah only limited to mere words and statements of condemnation with little or no action makes it evident that the collective consciousness of the vast majority of Arab and Muslim states died a long time ago. These reactions come as a shocking surprise and are utterly shameful.
As of yesterday, a ceasefire was announced between both territories and in less than 24 hours after the truce, it was violated by Israeli soldiers as they stormed into Al-Aqsa lobbing grenades on worshippers. But haven’t we all seen this before? An abrupt ceasefire, a rapid cessation of all hostilities from both sides that accomplishes nothing in the long term but results in an another endless cycle of violence. The question is, for how long will this dance of death last? Given the current scenarios, the road to Palestinian freedom seems to be a long one and the answer seems to be blowing in the wind.