Dear Editor,
Watching via TV, the massive protest marches around the world in support of the Palestinian cause and against human suffering as a result of the bombings of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force, it is gratifying to know that the people of Palestine are not alone. The big question is, will such huge international public support impact some governments who fiddle while Palestine burns. Interestingly, while there has been much condemnation of Hamas in western circles, there is no evidence of anti-Hamas rallies among the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza nor throughout their global diaspora. There are no anti-Hamas rallies because Hamas is in fact representative of the people it rules over in Gaza. In contradistinction, the vast majority of Palestinians consider Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the PA, to be an illegitimate leader. Four out of five Palestinians want him to resign, so that a more aggressive anti-Israeli leader can take his place
Within Israel itself, cracks have appeared in the Netanyahu administration. The cracks are compounded by the divergence of views between the political and military arms of the state over how to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas; whether there should be an exchange of Israeli-Palestinian prisoners; how to eliminate Hamas; how to brazenly and disrespectfully flout international humanitarian law while facing mounting pressure by the majority of member states at the United Nations, including twenty two Arab nations, all of whom, voted in favour of a resolution calling for an immediate cease fire and for the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
In the circumstances, it is extremely difficult at this time, to envisage any agreement being reached among states who have volunteered to play the role of ‘Guaranteeing States’ for the establishment of either a unitary Palestinian-Jewish state or a two-state solution with Arabs, Christians and Jews living in peace with each other. If either of the two models become unreachable, then the big question would be what will, knowing the root cause of the Palestinian problem is displacement and occupation? Under prevailing conditions, it would be idealistic or rather simplistic to believe that with 1.9 billion Muslims around the world, including 1.5 billion Sunnis constituting 90 percent of the world Muslim population and 240-34O million or 10 to 20 per cent being Shia, it would be mind boggling to imagine that 1.9 billion Muslims would rise up in one form or another, and on a global scale, as had happened recently at Dagestan’s International airport.
Moreover, even though famous Arab leaders including Hazrat Muhammad, Umer Ibn Khattab, Ali Ibn Ali Talib, Tariq bin Zyad, Harun al Rashid, Mahmud of Ghazni, Saladin, Timur or Ali have all left the world stage centuries ago, the question, hypothetical as it might be, is; had any of them been alive today, they might have caused history to be revised in a radically different way that would have certainly trumped Fukuyama’s ‘End of History.’ The war between Hamas and Israel is a never-ending tragedy that tells the story of Palestine and raises the question whether the Palestinian liberation struggle and the right of a people to self-determination ought to be redefined in the light of Palestine’s intricate and conflicting history intertwined with politics, ideology and on the grounds of morality, immortality, and the Palestinian’s own unique identity.
Israel’s war on Gaza has brought to the fore various themes, including revenge, madness, corruption, deception, and the consequences of inaction. Soliloquies such those in Hamlet’s, including the famous “To be or not to be” speech, provides an insight into the turmoil within Israeli society and the tactical and strategic musings that may have taken place at the political and military levels before the launch of the ground offensive in Gaza. Questions continue to be raised whither the fate and free will of the Palestinian people, who have demanded time and again their right to live in an independent state within the borders of pre June 4th, 1967 and with East Jerusalem as their capital. But the war has, once again, made this demand not only a tragic but an elusive one that begs the question whether the path to achieving a solution is either preordained or the proven destiny of the Palestinian people.
In the meanwhile, with the thousands of multi- ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural masses of people marching through the streets of capitals of countries around the world in solidarity with the Palestinian people, it is hard to deny the fact that the people marching are captivating audiences by demonstrating the strength of human solidarity never seen before in a long, long time in human history. The demonstrations are bound to trigger change but in what shape or form we cannot say at this point in time. What we can do now is to keep sending out ‘positive vibrations’ as the Rastafarian brothers would say in support of the Palestinian cause. Truth and justice must prevail.
Sincerely,
Clement J. Rohee