After shedding the blood of 1900 Palestinians, the conscience of West and US seems to be waking up. Right from the beginning of this conflict, and even before this, in all the conflicts when Israel was responsible for killing thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese, the Western countries and the US have very nicely and let’s call it ‘resiliently and relentlessly’ played their roles as the loyal allies of Israel. For this, they had to ignore the ground realities and extended their unconditional support for Israel. But world-wide condemnation of Israeli bombing and brutal killing of large number of civilians and children in Gaza made these governments talk slightly against their routine. British Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg condemned the serious criminal acts of Israeli Defense Forces and demanded the suspension of arms exports licenses to Israel. Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim minister of British cabinet resigned from her post against the ‘morally indefensible’ stance of her government against the atrocities of Israel.
On the other hand, there has been a considerable change in the tone of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, against Israel who condemned the attacks of Israel on UN shelters in Gaza where large number of women and children had taken refuge. In the second similar incident, more than ten Palestinian citizens lost their lives when Israeli bomb landed on another UN shelter.
Although US has repeatedly been calling the acts of Israel as ‘self-defense’ measures but Barack Obama described the sufferings of Palestinians as ‘heartbreaking’ which comes as a strange satire as if he had nothing to do with it.
The current leader of opposition in British parliament, Ed Miliband also criticized the role of government for being silent on the ‘killing of innocent civilians in Palestine’.
Similar trends can be noticed in the world media. When the conflict started, it was like inviting a whole lot of criticism to talk against Israel and its Defense Forces but now, more and more journalists and reporters are getting enough courage to disclose the brutal acts of Israel and talk against it. The famous British news channel, Channel 4, broadcasted a number of reports from inside Gaza when the heartbreaking scenes of the wounded and deceased Palestinian children moved the hearts of audiences world-wide and gave birth to a wave of criticism against Israel. Similarly, the opinions given in Guardian newspaper of Britain have also changed now. With this, the comments given by their readers have experienced increasing support for Palestinians and criticism for Israel which was not the case when this conflict.
A letter written to US President Barack Obama by a Norwegian doctor serving in Gaza also became viral on social networking sites. In this letter, the doctor challenges the US president to come and spend a night in Shifa hospital in Gaza after which there would be a revolutionary change in his views about Middle East.
The 81 year old American comedian gave a remark about this conflict which became a shame not only for her but for the whole of humanity. She gave a comment that ‘Palestinian civilians deserved to be killed.’ She was much criticized as she had forgotten to include more than 450 children who could have done nothing to save their lives.
BBC also gave news about an incident in Australia when some Jewish students of a school were threatened by a group of teenagers. Although it is worth-condemning as those young students had nothing to do with this but it shows another angle of the picture. Now, many people are so angry against Israel that they want to express their anger in whatever way possible.
In the same way, world polls show that the recent conflict inside Gaza not only decreased the graph of Israel but it also brought a lot of criticism for its allies, i.e., the US, the Britain and a number of other European countries.
All this was possible due to some of the very simple reasons. First of all, Israel and its allies had repeatedly been calling it the act of Israel in its self-defense against the militants of Hamas but the figures on ground and other similar realities have no more left any life in this claim. According to the figures issued by UN and almost the same figures were issued by Israel, more than 1900 Palestinians have lost their lives. Among these, only 166 have been suspected (not confirmed) to be militants while the rest are civilians and we should not forget that more than 450 of them were children who could do nothing against anyone. On the other hand, out of 66 Israelis killed, only two civilians are included while 64 IDF soldiers were killed on the battle ground. These figures are good enough to show that it was no more a defensive war of Israel as in any such war; you don’t go and kill large number of people from the other side.
The repeated propagation against the rocket attacks of Hamas is also losing its meaning because these rockets have not done any considerable harm to the Israelis mainly due to the Missile Defense Shield of Israel which explodes the rockets of Hamas before they land on the Jewish soil. Till now, these rockets have only killed two Israelis and injured three and it is also the claim of Israel. Even if these figures are correct, they are absolutely negligible comparing to the vast human and infrastructural destruction of Israeli attacks.
Many people have now started questioning and agreeing with the Palestinian view that they are living a life completely controlled and seized by Israel and they have lost the security of their lives, all their social and civil liberties, their access to job and free trade and even their food and water is rationed by the Israeli authorities. The peace talks in Cairo were not successful just because Hamas and Palestinians were not ready to give up their demand that Israel should lift this siege which it has illegally and inhumanly continued for the last seven years. From any perspective, the demand of Palestinians appears to be absolutely justified and just like other nations of the world, they also reserve the rights to live freely in a free land.
Next harsh reality is the relation of the occupier and the occupied in which Israel is the occupier and Palestinians are the occupied. Since 1949, when the tiny state of Israel was formed on this land, there has been incessant expansion and occupation of lands of Palestinians by Israel and millions of Palestinians were forced to leave their places where they had been living for thousands of years and in this process, hundreds and thousands of Palestinians were killed because, just like any other nation of the world, they could have never given up their rights. It is totally meaningless to expect a permanent settlement of this issue unless the rights of Palestinians to live a decent life in a free and autonomous state with their civil rights and liberties are ensured. This is the condition not acceptable for Israel as it may become an obstacle in its way of expansion by grabbing more Palestinian land and making new settlements. This dangerous status-quo of the occupier and the occupied was established by the British and the US and their Western allies and they are also responsible for upholding this condition by providing billions of dollars to Israel for snatching more Palestinian land and murdering more and more of them. And if they resist, they are termed as terrorists.
In this war, the courage and chivalry of Hamas fighters have been praised by all the military experts who killed 64 Israeli soldiers although having no latest arms or technology. The war has also brought their image as a responsible and morally elevated unit when they, unlike Israel, avoided attacking the civilians and in this more than a month’s conflict; only 2 Israeli civilians have been killed while they have carried very successful attacks on IDF. On the other hand, Israelis have been termed as ‘morally corrupt’ nation who strike innocent citizens and their citizens celebrate and dance in the jubilation of these brutal acts of murder and destruction.
It is also worth mentioning here that all these sufferings have only added to the bravery and courage of Palestinians which shows their quality as a nation with high moral qualities because they endured the sufferings but never resorted to any means that could be against or below any moral standards. At the same time, they never beseeched or begged for their lives and stood firm for the cause which is both noble and justified.
In the Palestinian issue, the problem is not going to be solved from Palestinian side because whatever they do, they are forced to do so. The problem will only be solved when the occupier will stop its occupation and enslaving of the occupied and this can be done by Jerusalem, Washington and London when they will accept Palestinians as humans and grant them all the rights granted to humans like that of a free land, civil liberties, freedom of movement and others.