This Israeli brutality and defiance of international law will certainly breed more violence and extremism; it will further radicalize the whole region in a way that will make it impossible to achieve lasting peace and global security. There is an urgent need to mount more pressure on world powers so they do something to end Israeli occupation and aggression.
Arab countries are not capable of defying the military might of Israel that is backed by the United States and tolerated by the Western powers. However, if the cycle of violence and revenge is not broken, this is going to influence the Arab youth in ways that will only gladden the hearts of extremists. The Arab and Muslim children will never be able to forget TV images of screaming women mourning their loved ones and corpses of babies being pulled out of the rubble in the Gaza Strip. The pain and the suffering of the Palestinian people will continue to be the pain of every Arab and Muslim man, woman and child.
The rising anger and rage and the feeling of hopelessness, especially among the younger generation, will certainly fuel more hatred toward the West. The murderous attack, with the most sophisticated weapons, on innocent people who are left to die with no medical supplies is bound to push the region into more conflicts and wars. Extremism and terrorism will rise and the whole world will be threatened by the rage of a desperate people who have nothing to lose. The United Nations should oppose the expansionist policies of Israel by imposing, if necessary, penalizing sanctions on it; the international community should strongly condemn Israel for using weapons of mass murder against defenseless people. There is a dire need for a Western initiative to back efforts aimed at stopping the bloodbath in Gaza.
There are many ways the West can confront Israeli atrocities and condemn its human rights abuses. The West could launch a global campaign to expose Israel’s state-sponsored terrorism. Writers could tell the stories of the Palestinian tragedies and expose the fabricated lies claiming that Israel is a victim of Palestinian terrorism. The majority of people in the West have been made to believe this lie because of the biased and controlled media that justifies every Israeli atrocity. Journalists should not be afraid to expose Israeli brutalities and report on how the State of Israel continues to terrorize the Palestinians in their own lands, demolishing houses, uprooting trees, evicting people from their homes and building more settlements on the lands that are stolen from Palestinian owners. Historians could document the true facts regarding the plight of the Palestinians. Studies should be conducted to address the negative impact of this war on the minds of the Palestinian youth, who are witnessing the death and destruction taking place in Gaza. Maybe then the people in the West would become more sympathetic to Palestinians and support their cause. Artists can paint pictures that depict the miserable living conditions of Palestinians under Israeli occupation with no access to water, electricity, medicine or the basic necessities of life.
Religious leaders should condemn the actions of the Jewish state and ask their followers to show moral support for the Palestinian people and stop all kinds of cooperation with Israel. This may wake up the conscience of those who do not care. Academics should defy Israeli arrogance and hold conferences to allow policy-makers to be more informed about the realities on the ground. Schools and universities should teach the students that Israel should not be above the law and that Israeli politicians should be held accountable for all the evil they have perpetrated against Palestinians. Professionals and labor unions and businessmen should boycott Israeli products and stop all economic relations with the State of Israel until it ends its cruel and unjust policies in the region. Parents should teach their children that Palestinians have a just cause and a right to exist. They are not terrorists, but an oppressed people who are suffering under a siege imposed by Israel.
Western organizations, academic institutions, and men and women who believe in justice can exert greater pressure if they speak out against Israeli aggression and criminal behavior. There is no doubt that there are many Western peace lovers who wish to contribute to the efforts to curb the inevitable rising tide of terrorism and extremism in the region. However, they need to have the will to make a difference and the determination to defy the forces of evil that dictate the Middle East policies, especially toward the Palestinian people. Movies, theaters and the media must stop spreading the canard that Israel is a victim of Palestinian terrorism and that it is acting in self-defense.
The Jewish Peace Now movement should gain more prominence and support so that the public is aware that there are Israelis and honorable Jews who want peace and condemn the cruel policies against the Palestinians. Their voices should be heard in all Western capitals and their movement should be projected and given more media coverage to inspire the public who are unaware of the real facts. This is the only way to curb Israel’s influence on the policy-makers in the West.
A collective Western defiance of Israeli arrogance and brutality could go a long way toward building trust and eliminating Arab and Muslim rage against the West. People in the Arab world perceive Western politicians as masters of conspiracies and frauds. They believe that people in the West are racists and are not capable of feeling the pain and the suffering of Palestinian women and children and have no compassion for the weak and the oppressed. The death of the hundreds who have been killed by Israeli tanks and jets means nothing to them. The majority in the Arab world suspects that Western leaders are only motivated by greed. Turning a blind eye to Israeli war crimes and conducting business as usual with the Jewish state without any attempt to impose sanctions or boycotts against it, will only add to the growing rage and suspicions against the West in the region. Extremism and terrorism will continue to threaten global peace as well as the future of our young generation. It is up to Western powers to take action now and spare our world of more anguish and destruction.
They should think twice about their policies toward the Middle East and stop their blind support for Israel. For how long will the Western powers stand by and watch innocent people suffer? The only way toward Western reconciliation with the Arabs and Muslims is through strong and unanimous condemnation of Israeli brutality and a meaningful support for a just settlement with the Palestinians.
Samar Fatany is a Saudi radio journalist.
Samar Fatany
http://samotalis.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment