Dispossession of an identity

The world just watches on

Modern history rarely demonstrates any examples of erosion of a state, though the Palestinian case has seemingly been plausible given the unabated war crimes, displacement and mass killings in Gaza and beyond. The zeitgeist to be resilient remains firm though, the incessant atrocities in the region have been damaging the spirit to have a right of self-determination. This crime-driven campaign backed by the sole superpower is a historic attempt to make Zionism win at the expense of killing innocent civilians.

The foreigners are new natives and that identity has come with a cost, ironically, of the oppressed. Making the land uninhabitable, manoeuvring trials and tribulations as a tool to mitigate the resilience of the oppressed and grossly violating international laws and denying global actors’ peace negotiations has isolated Israel though, the intentions are burgeoning.

The intention, historically, has been to hijack Palestinian land and turn the long awaited Zionism idea into a tangible truth. The institutionalisation of human rights was marked as a privilege for all and sundry though, the recent developments in Gaza indicates it —human rights —has a skin colour: the darker the skin, the less the protection and the attention.

The Balfour Declaration initiated the campaign to create a Jewish state on Palestinian land and has been wiping out every, even minimal, obstacle to materialise the long awaited mission. This, in effect, has thrown millions into misery, displacement and hunger.

First the illegal declaration of Israel as a state in 1948— which was endorsed by the USA within 11 minutes— and later the annexation of more than 75 percent of the Palestinian land— after the Six-Day War— seems a lesser atrocity before Israel. The Palestinian rejection of the UN presented Partition Plan of 1947 has been the trigger moment for the genocidal state and since then, consecutive attempts are put into practice to obliterate the Palestinian identity in the pretext to shun resistant militias.

Ripping off of identity, annexation of land and incessant atrocities are, in fact, the modern colonialism. The colonisers, as always, guise barbarism in right, retaliation or retribution. Ironically, all three have intermittently been part of the plan in Palestinian case. Initially, the violent brutality was cited as the Jewish people’s ‘right’ to a separate land. The aftermaths of Arab-Israeli wars have historically been cited as retaliation. The annexation of three quarters of the land and indirect control on Gaza are the retributions since the Palestinians, they say, have been committing wrongdoings and opposing the Bible indicated creation of a Jewish land.

The Oslo Accords paved the way for the dispossession of an identity. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recognition of the Israeli state and vice versa, triggered the erosion of an identity since Israel didn’t move the agreement accordingly and incessantly spurred the encroachment though it was agreed otherwise. The violation of ‘right of return’ and seizure of more Palestinian land didn’t trigger smoke and mirrors modus operandi by the other side. The Zionism believers manoeuvred the innocence and deceived the oppressed by hook or crook. As a result, the Nakba, or ‘the catastrophe’ has been in play for more than seven-and-a-half decades now.

Itinerant Palestinians’ voices are merely the sound wavelengths of brouhaha and pitches of despair. The pictorial news and live coverage— if rarely covered though— catalyse naught, leaving the anguish firmly enacted. Yet, the echoes of ‘justified war’ are deafening. The deafening silence in Gaza is confined to 360 km. Does hypocrisy not define the situation? The answer is a resounding yes! Given the global peacemaker— the UN— being in handcuffs, the alternatives are murky. 

What Gaza presents is a horrible tragedy. The obliteration of homes, communities, cultures and futures merely makes the world condemn without actual efforts to bring an armistice. The war criminals are venerated, the oppressed are instructed to suffer in silence. This interest-driven, highly polarised world pays a deaf ear to the agonies the Gazans— and now the Lebanese too— are going through and shrugs its shoulders in peace concerns.

The war on humanity and a textbook genocide rarely get into the limelight. Perhaps, hypocrisy remains the primary blockage to a ceasefire. Escalation after escalation solely makes the civilians’ souls depart, the Zionism defenders and justified war proponents live in bomb shelters.

Itinerant Palestinians’ voices are merely the sound wavelengths of brouhaha and pitches of despair. The pictorial news and live coverage— if rarely covered though— catalyse naught, leaving the anguish firmly enacted. Yet, the echoes of ‘justified war’ are deafening. The deafening silence in Gaza is confined to 360 km. Does hypocrisy not define the situation? The answer is a resounding yes! Given the global peacemaker— the UN— being in handcuffs, the alternatives are murky. The Hague-based UN bodies attempting to somehow bring friction to the swift destruction have successively failed and the war is still ‘not over’. Zionism? The USA? Benjamin Netanyahu? The UN? Who to blame? All of them. It’s a textbook genocide with more or less everyone contributing.

History doesn’t forgive nor does it forget. The Palestinian dispossession is a daylight dacoity with watchmen just being spectators. The intervention was the commonly sensed solution. The nutshell leaves a sentence: hypocrisy prevailed over integrity.

Insaf Ali Bangwar
Insaf Ali Bangwar
The writer is a freelancer. He can be reached at @[email protected]

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Must Read

Govt plans partial internet, mobile suspensions in Islamabad, KP, and Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to implement a partial suspension of internet and mobile services in Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab as a...