Gaza: A Showcase of West-led War Crimes and the Ethnic Cleansing

Firoz Mahboob Kamal

A showcase of pure evil

Gaza now stands as the glaring showcase of the US-led western barbarism, occupation and genocidal war crimes. It is a showcase of pure colonial evil. It is indeed the only existing replica of colonialism that fights to have its last breaths in a civilised world. Like any colonial occupation of the past, occupation, persecution, destruction, genocidal ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people are its integral parts.

Israel is not a lone war criminal; all western powers like the US, the UK, France, German are the intimate partners in crimes. Israel is fathered by the west, nurtured by the west, financed by the west, and massively armed by the west. So Israel can’t stand separate from the west -neither politically nor ideologically. So the western toxic ideologies like racism, racial supremacism, colonialism, genocidal cleansing are deeply embedded in Israeli ideological, cultural and political polity. Hence, from day one of its creation in 1948, Israel is working as a western project on a Muslim land.This is why the US President Joe Biden said, “If there wasn’t any Israel, we had to create one… Our investment in Israel is the best investment… Israel is fighting our own wars.” If Israel hadn’t been supported by the US and its allies, it couldn’t commit crimes to such a catastrophic scale alone. Therefore those who support Israel, finance Israel and supply arms to Israel are fully complicit in the War Crimes.

The US and its allies argue that Israel has the right of self-defence. But Israel is not exercising the right of its self-defence, rather fighting only to defend its illegal occupation. No civilised man or nation should support those who fight to defend an illegal occupation. Rather they should support those who fight against an occupation. It is a moral duty to support them. Any resistance movement of the Palestinians deserves such support. On the other hand, supporting Israel is supporting occupation. It is immoral and a heinous crime as per international law. The US and its allies are committing such.

Occupation, colonisation, persecution, ethnic cleansing,  and genocides are not new in human history. The Red Indians in America, the Aborigines in Australia, the Maoris in New Zealand, the Incas in South America were ethnically almost cleansed to make space for the white supremacists of Europe. And those Europeans who committed those heinous crimes never faced any punishment.Such a legacy of barbaric crimes didn’t die. Israel is the textbook case of such crimes practised in modern days. The western people who committed such crimes in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand now stand shoulder to shoulder with their ideological cousins in Israel. So the people of Palestine face a real threat of total annihilation.

Pause in war and no ceasefire

The US and its western allies do not want a ceasefire. The US is happy with a four hour pause in some selected areas – although yet not confirmed by Israel. It is indeed a strategy only to prolong the war and raze the whole Gaza to the ground. The four hour break in war will give Israel breathing space for more attacks. Such a four hour break is a ridicule and a slap on the face of those who want a ceasefire.

Israel has identified its enemy. The Israeli leaders have also told about their war objectives. Every Palestinian -even old men, old women and children are considered as enemies. They believe that every building -be it residential home, hospital, mosque or school, have tunnels underneath with Hamas fighters hiding in it. So they want total destruction of all buildings. They also want to kill as many men, women and children as possible. This is why the Israeli Army does not need to be selected in the bombing or killing campaign. It executes carpet bombings on residential buildings to kill everyone living there -including men, women and children. This is why they are dropping bombs indiscriminately on hospitals, mosques, schools and homes.

The Israeli Army has already killed more than eleven thousand Palestians. Of them, about six thousand are children. They could kill only a handful of Hamas fighters. More than 98 percent of the deaths are civilians. Since genocidal cleansing hasn’t finished yet, Israel doesn’t want the end of the war; only want some pauses.  

The Israeli endgame is clear. Israel wants to occupy the whole of Gaza. They will try to eliminate any resistance movement there. Under the Israeli occupation, Gaza will survive only as an open air prison. The Palestinians will be allowed to live only as prison inmates; they will enjoy no freedom, nor any basic human rights.

None could save the Palestinians

So far, none could save the lives of the Palestinians. Therefore, deaths and destruction in Gaza continue. The UN shows its total powerlessness to stop any war. The UN Security Council is deeply fractured into two parts: the US and its allies on the one side, Russia and China stand on the other side. If any side  starts a war, nobody can stop it -unless the warring party itself ends it. Any initiative in the UN to stop the war meets veto. Thus, the UN itself stands as a hostage to its veto-owning members. Hence, all recent initiatives to stop the war in Gaza failed.

More than 1.5 billion Muslims couldn’t do anything either for the Palestinians. In most of the Muslim countries, Muslims themselves live in prisons. The rulers of the Muslim countries are mere prison wardens.  Being captive in prisons, one can’t help others. They can only make prayers. But mere prayers of the inactive people don’t work. If prayers are made with meaningful efforts and sacrifices for the suffering people, only then it brings mercy. But Muslims’ commitment and sacrifices for the Palestinians is very minimal.

Localism in Muslims and a Muslim’s struggle

Muslims’ enemies show globalism in their policies and politics -as being displayed on the issue of Israeli war. Whereas Muslims show localism. Most of the Muslim leaders try to keep Muslims’ problems localised within its geographical boundary. They try to prevent those problems from becoming globalised. This owes to their alienation from the pan-Islamic world-view of Islam. Because of that, many Arab leaders show little sympathy or empathy with the sufferings of the Kashmiri, the Rohingya, the Indian and the Uighur Muslims. This is why the Saudi and the UAE leader could decorate Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India -the genocidal Hindutva killer of Muslims and a friend of Israel with the highest civil award. This way they proved that the worst enemy of the Indian Muslims is their closest friend. Similarly, the Muslims of non-Arab countries are kept aloof from the sufferings of Palestine.

Such localism is more visible at the secular leadership level. It is against the spirit of Islam. This is a Satanic design to keep Muslims fixed only to local agenda. As per Prophetic tradition, Muslim are described as a united body (ummah); so pain in one part of the body must be felt by another part. So every problem of Muslims is global. Hence, Muslims must live with globalism and not with localisim in their political and ideological perspectives. Those who don’t feel the pain of a wounded Palestinian in Gaza, how can be a Muslim? 

It is a pity that the Muslim Ummah is deeply fractured politically in the name of race, language and geopolitics. They indeed celebrate such division. Unity isn’t an agenda for them. Instead of taking the side of the Palestinians, many of the so-called Muslim leaders are more interested to side with Israel and the US. They find their own security in it. They are waiting for the war to settle down. If war ends, the power-hungry leaders will forget the issue of the Palestinians -as they did before. They will rush to make friends with the Israeli killers. Some non-Muslim countries like Bolivia ended their relations or withdrew their ambassadors from Israel, but Muslim countries like Egypt, UAE, Morocco, Sudan didn’t do that. These self-serving leaders of these countries are indeed the real cause of all problems of the ummah. So, the Israeli war criminals are not the only enemies, the worst enemies live also in their midst. So,  war needs to be fought not only in occupied Palestine but also in other occupied Muslim lands. This is why jihad comes to every believer’s life. 11/11/2023