The Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza have touched a raw nerve among the Pakistani public, which has held spontaneous protests in all major cities. The government should not try to brush off this genuine rage by the sort of flippant comments that Interior Minister Sh Rashid Ahmed made, saying that such gatherings violated social distancing requirements, inviting protesters to his native Lal Haveli, and saying that there was an officially sanctioned protest on Friday. Not only does he seem to have misread the public mood, but his tone showed that the government is out of sync with the people. They want the government to take action, something that would stop the slaughter of Palestinians now going on. Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip before, but this time it was preceded by a police attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which seems to have crossed limits of tolerance among the Pakistani people.
It is not as if they are out of step with the rest of the world. Indeed, if one was to look at US cities and European capitals, one would see a number of protests occurring. The Western governments also seem out of step with that portion of the population demanding an end to Israeli violence, as they continued to support the Israeli claim of being merely victims who exercised their right of self-defence. It seems that the Israeli aggression and atrocities are so blatant that they are causing ordinary people, who had been sympathetic to Israel ever since the Holocaust of World War II.
The performance of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the way to New York illustrated the kind of problems that are to be faced now that traditional allies in the Arab world seem more interested in building their relations with Israel, than in stopping the slaughter of the Palestinians. This creates a problem for the Pakistan government, which sees itself unable to formulate a response. The National Assembly’s condemnatory resolution does not seem to satisfy the people, with the result that the government is left looking hapless. This in turn means the people, who are looking for a lead, will turn to those who can give it.
