By Salman Sultan
Way back in mid twentieth century (in the sixties) leader of the famous group ‘Beatles’, John Lennon immortalized the words ‘Give peace a chance’ in a song. Official web site of John Lennon describes him as ‘Artist, musician, poet, peace activist & philosopher’ who wondered “Imagine all the people living life in peace.”
Real war is not like playing video games but it has devastating and cascading effect on both warring factions. With weapons of mass destruction, horrible after effects of a modern war can only be assumed on the basis of gigantic magnification of the destruction witnessed in case of atomic bomb droppings on ‘Hiroshima’ and ‘Nagasaki’. Hazardous radioactive after effects still carries on.
Adrenaline pumping speeches is prompting youths towards jingoism and the patriotic fervor keep rising similar to mercury shooting up in hot summer. It is easy to talk of war sitting in the cozy home environment far-far away from regular bomb exploding and booming cannons active in the war zones. However, even this supposedly safe populace will start feeling the heat, once war starts and continues for few days. The crippling effect of war on an already slowed down economy will impede region’s progress and result in an unprecedented backward movement of development.
In contrast to war like situation just imagine how cooperation among countries will usher a new era of peace and tranquility. To alleviate suffering of human beings in this world will be a great service to humanity and for this to happen countries will have to come together.
Palestine-Israel conflict reminds one of the “Arab-Camel” parable. After a long journey an Arab pitched a tent to rest inside. Outside it was cold and after sometime the Camel asked the Arab to put his head inside. The Arab out of compassion allowed and to cut a long story short as the night progressed the Camel was inside and the Arab was shivering out in the cold. Strangely after World War II when countries colonized by Britain were being freed, the colonization of Palestine was initiated by Britain. Slowly but surely Jews from around the world moved in the region to settle, according to them, in the Promised Land. They often lured the natives (Palestinians) in selling their lands but in most of the cases they forcefully occupied the land evicting the rightful owner, the Palestinians. This is a continued process and now it is mostly “Settlers” who live in Palestine. While Jews were persecuted in Europe, in Germany they were alleged to be ethnically cleansed, they were given refuge in Arab land. Ironically, instead of being grateful to the hospitality of Arabs, Jews started usurping their lands in order to fulfill their dream of ‘Greater Israel’.
In West Bank Settlers don’t allow them (Palestinians) even to cultivate their own land and as they (Settlers) have been armed by the government, most confrontations result in death of native Palestinians. Israel retorting to surprised 7th October attack by ‘Hamas’ has been relentlessly bombarding innocent civilians, mostly children and women. It is not only bombing buildings but has not even spared Hospitals, medical Personnel and Journalists. A number of UN aid workers have succumbed to this indiscriminate bombing.
Israel, emboldened by US support, has become deaf to worldwide ongoing protests against war. A number of UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire have been vetoed by USA. On one hand they(US) are exhorting Israel vis -à-vis its right of self defense and on the other President and Secretary of State of USA are cautioning Israel towards civilian casualties which has even crossed 18000. Paradoxically, USA strongly condemns Russia for Ukrainian civilian causalities but for Israel-Gaza War it repeatedly Veto Ceasefire resolutions. Children are the worst sufferers, not only in the numbers who died but those who were maimed or critically injured.
Israel lays emphasis on Hamas attack naming it a terrorist attack but it conveniently ignores its role as an Occupation Force. The UN Secretary General rightfully remarked that the Hamas attack didn’t happen in a Vacuum. Palestinians have a right to fight for their freedom and get rid of the Occupation Force. This ongoing war has resulted in civilian casualties on both sides though enormity of Palestinian casualties is worrisome. The irresponsibility of Israeli soldiers can be gauged by the recent killing of their own countrymen, held captive by Hamas, surrendering waving white flags.
Where are champions of human rights when Gazans are starving to death and dangers of epidemic breaking out? The resilience of people fighting for freedom cannot be smothered by indiscriminate bombing of infrastructure converting the whole of Gaza uninhabitable. Superpowers like USA and Russia were not able to achieve their goal, be it in Vietnam or Afghanistan and ultimately they had to leave,
Qatari efforts for everlasting peace in the region are really appreciable. However, one is reminded of the following lines of a famous song:
“how many times must the cannon balls fly
before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind;
The answer is blowin’ in the wind”.