Manifest cruelty
DAWN
Editorial
Editorial
Published January 31, 2024
THE Israeli war on Gaza has exposed the hollow claims of many global actors regarding commitment to humanitarian values. Apparently, these values can be put in abeyance if the victims of Israeli state-sponsored terror are Palestinian civilians. As if the slaughter of over 26,000 Palestinians since Oct 7 were not enough — several Western states, led by the US, have faithfully stood by Israel as it committed these crimes, and blocked ceasefire attempts — now, many of Tel Aviv’s foreign friends are doing their best to sabotage the UN’s efforts to provide succour to the Gazans. After Israel accused 12 employees of UNRWA — the UN agency that provides education, healthcare and social services to Palestinian refugees — of complicity in the Oct 7 attacks, several states have stopped contributing funds to the body. These include the US, Britain and other European nations. The rush to judgement has come even before any proper investigation has been launched, although the UN says it has suspended the services of those accused, and has started a probe.
The move to defund UNRWA over unproven allegations is a manifestation of great cruelty on the part of states that have stopped payments. These states have no problem shipping arms and ammunition to Israel, which it uses to unleash unspeakable barbarity upon the civilians of Gaza. But the flimsiest of excuses is used to stop aid reaching a population that has been dazed by months of war and displacement. The UN secretary general has criticised the move, while Pakistan has similarly termed it “unjustifiable”. It would be naïve to expect Israel’s hard-core supporters to display any empathy for Palestinian civilians. In such circumstances, the Muslim world, which has been conspicuous by its silence during this brutal conflict, needs to step in and fill the funding gap. Particularly, those energy-rich Muslim states with billions of petrodollars in their bank accounts need to come to the aid of Gaza’s people.
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024
THE Israeli war on Gaza has exposed the hollow claims of many global actors regarding commitment to humanitarian values. Apparently, these values can be put in abeyance if the victims of Israeli state-sponsored terror are Palestinian civilians. As if the slaughter of over 26,000 Palestinians since Oct 7 were not enough — several Western states, led by the US, have faithfully stood by Israel as it committed these crimes, and blocked ceasefire attempts — now, many of Tel Aviv’s foreign friends are doing their best to sabotage the UN’s efforts to provide succour to the Gazans. After Israel accused 12 employees of UNRWA — the UN agency that provides education, healthcare and social services to Palestinian refugees — of complicity in the Oct 7 attacks, several states have stopped contributing funds to the body. These include the US, Britain and other European nations. The rush to judgement has come even before any proper investigation has been launched, although the UN says it has suspended the services of those accused, and has started a probe.
The move to defund UNRWA over unproven allegations is a manifestation of great cruelty on the part of states that have stopped payments. These states have no problem shipping arms and ammunition to Israel, which it uses to unleash unspeakable barbarity upon the civilians of Gaza. But the flimsiest of excuses is used to stop aid reaching a population that has been dazed by months of war and displacement. The UN secretary general has criticised the move, while Pakistan has similarly termed it “unjustifiable”. It would be naïve to expect Israel’s hard-core supporters to display any empathy for Palestinian civilians. In such circumstances, the Muslim world, which has been conspicuous by its silence during this brutal conflict, needs to step in and fill the funding gap. Particularly, those energy-rich Muslim states with billions of petrodollars in their bank accounts need to come to the aid of Gaza’s people.
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024
Rafia Zakaria
DAWN
January 31, 2024
FOR months now, Muslims across the world have seen the people of Gaza suffer unspeakable horrors. According to the United Nations, the condition is beyond horrific with few working toilets and no place to shower for the thousands crammed into makeshift camps, hospitals, schools and anything still standing. Because this situation has gone on for so long, there are new problems emerging from the overcrowding. There are outbreaks of dysentery and respiratory illness — thanks to the absence of facilities to maintain a hygienic environment and the lack of sufficient food and water to nourish the sick and aid their recovery.
Then this past weekend, matters got even worse. The US, the UK, Australia, Germany and several other countries declared that they would suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. This is catastrophic news for Gazans who have already faced unimaginable horrors since Oct 7. In response, the agency suspended “several” of its employees following allegations by Israel that some UNRWA staffers had a role in the Oct 7 Hamas strike.
The suspension of aid by these nations is a grotesque and heartless move. Undoubtedly, these countries are aware of what their actions are likely to do for those suffering in Gaza. The move came hours after the International Court of Justice declared that Israel should prevent a genocide against the Palestinians. This move likely annoyed Israel and its allies who have held that their massive bombing, shelling and raids of Gaza are justified because of the Oct 7 attacks. It also called into question the Israeli insistence that its actions in Gaza are justified as self-defence by ‘using any means necessary’.
Even as all this was happening, the Qataris were holding a meeting with Israel, the CIA and Egypt to come up with an elusive ceasefire. The sticking point in that negotiation is that Israel is not willing to agree to a permanent ceasefire, as it wants to be able to go back into Gaza and carry out further operations there whenever it deems it necessary.
The suspension of aid to UNRWA by a number of countries is a grotesque and heartless move.
The actions of those supporting Israel and suspending humanitarian funding are despicable. At the same time, given the length of the conflict and the desperation of the Gazans it is worth asking why Muslim humanitarian organisations have not been able to raise more funds to help the people in Gaza. It is not because there isn’t a framework to do this. Following 9/11 and the designation of many Western-based Islamic charities as implicated in terrorist funding (most of the allegations are baseless) many new Islamic charities with wider networks have emerged.
Meanwhile, a number of Muslim charities have done incredible work. One of them is Islamic Relief. The charity has been instrumental in providing aid all across the Muslim world — from the floods in Pakistan to running a camp of thousands of refugees in Yemen. Islamic Relief is collecting funds for Gaza but considering the thousands of people who have poured into the streets to protest against Israeli actions, there has not been a similar outpouring of funds being sent to the impoverished and war-affected: people have spoken with their feet but not with their wallets.
However, the people of the Muslim world can be forgiven. After all, most Muslim countries are poor and the people praying for Gaza within them are barely eking out an existence themselves. The post-Covid era has brought about joblessness, inflation and ailing economies. Predatory leaders regularly milk these publics for their own benefit, and so theirs is hardly an enviable existence.
There are, however, many rich Muslim countries. Headquartered in Saudi Arabia, the International Islamic Relief Organisation (different from the previously mentioned Islamic Relief) has made commitments to providing crisis relief at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. It has a budget running into tens of millions of dollars. Despite this, it is unclear what exactly this organisation is doing to help the people of Gaza. Surely, Muslim nations can pump in more funds if they really want to help the people of Gaza.
The announcement of the suspension of aid to UNRWA should have spurred an immediate meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. It is not known why hardly any Muslim country has made an effort to go beyond condemnatory statements and token assistance. Watching the videos of the recent wedding of the prince of Brunei I could not help but wonder how many people could be saved in Gaza if his new princess donated just one of the incredibly large diamond necklaces she wore to the many ceremonies.
The humanitarian aid complex, created as it was following the two world wars, has always been in the hands of Western nations who deem who is ‘human’ enough to be considered a part of humanity. The issues faced by non-white populations, largely Muslims, lie on the margins of the Western imagination; sometimes these people are considered human enough to receive humanitarian assistance. When this happens, the UN can come marching in with tents and blankets, and conditions can at least be marginally improved.
The Gazans have been deemed inhuman by this logic and they are suffering the consequences of that designation at the hands of the countries who have chosen to suspend funding to UNRWA. This need not be a death knell for the Gazans, Muslim countries can make up whatever deficit there is in funding, thus making a clear statement that the persecuted, displaced people of Gaza are not available to the West to abuse at will. There is an ideological position in this — for years now, Israel has wanted the dissolution of UNRWA clearly because it is a group created especially for Palestinian refugees to provide them with assistance and services. Allowing UNRWA to be dismembered in this manner is to allow Israel and the US to say that the long-suffering Palestinians do not have the right to return.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024
Israel über alles
Mahir Ali
Mahir Ali
DAWN
January 31, 2024
ONCE the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague endorsed the substance of South Africa’s case against Israel (albeit not in its entirety) last week, the Zionist project’s international collaborators were as desperate for a distraction as Israel. The latter promptly provided it with the allegation that a dozen UNRWA employees participated in the Oct 7 atrocities in southern Israel.
Led by the US, Germany and UK, a number of Western nations and their allies suspended their crucial funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which was set up in 1949, in the wake of the Nakba, to provide means of subsistence to Palestinian refugees. These include basic education, primary healthcare and other vital services. Its operations stretch from Gaza and East Jerusalem to the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
A secondary distraction was provided by a drone attack that killed three US personnel and injured dozens in Jordan. US media reports suggest the drone wasn’t intercepted based on the suspicion that it might be ‘friendly’ (Israeli), and that the US authorities had no idea where it came from, although they showed no hesitation in blaming ‘Iranian-allied’ militias and vowing vengeance. That’s the latter-day equivalent of the much-mocked command to ‘round up the usual suspects’, but perhaps the bigger question is why there should be a US military base where Jordan’s borders meet those of Syria and Iraq — or anywhere else in the country.
‘Guilty until proved innocent’ also applies to UNRWA, which has previously been accused by Israel of preaching hatred in its schools — which, mind you, help to place the Palestinians among the best-educated Arab populations. The accusation cannot be taken seriously in a milieu where reciting the true history of Israel as a colonial-settler society is deemed antisemitic, and there is no equivalent focus on the pernicious nonsense drummed into the innocent minds of Israeli schoolchildren.
The ICJ’s interim verdict won’t make much of a difference.
UNRWA has suspended nine of its accused employees pending an internal probe, and two others are among the dozens of staff killed in Israel’s latest invasion of Gaza. It is distressing that the accusations involving 0.01pc of its 13,000 employees, whether or not true, have been deemed sufficient by so many Western states to cut off funding to one of the only organisations that may be able to avert a famine. All too many of them, meanwhile, continue to arm and diplomatically abet the perpetrators of what the ICJ deems a potential genocide.
That impression was consolidated on Sunday when 11 members of the Netanyahu cabinet attended a congregation in Jerusalem tagged the ‘Victory of Israel Conference: Settlement Brings Security’, which called for the ‘voluntary migration’ of Palestinians away from the Gaza Strip. That not only defies the ICJ’s interim injunction against incitement to genocide, but also reflects the Nazi attitude towards European Jews before the Germans opted for gas chambers.
Notwithstanding the ‘never again’ slogan of 80 years ago, the Zionists brought with them to the ‘promised land’ the Nazi concepts of lebensraum and untermenschen — territorial expansion and lesser beings, the first applying to European Jews and the second to Palestinians. The devotion to their would-be exterminators stretched to hiring one of Hitler’s leading henchmen, Otto Skorzeny, as a Mossad hitman — after he had, equally deplorably, served as military adviser to Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.
It was the Nazi regime’s expansionism, rather than the related Judeocide, that propelled the British and eventually joint Anglo-American response — although the latter was also instigated by the Soviet advance into Eastern Europe after the Red Army had turned the tide against the Wehrmacht. It remains to be seen how far the Israel Defence Forces will go before any nation other than the dispersed Palestinians steps up to challenge the Israelis.
The resistance so far has been restricted to so-called non-state actors. Saudi Arabia remains keen on establishing formal ties with Israel. Arab and other Muslim states have vaguely backed South Africa’s case at the ICJ, but none of them has officially signed up as a party to the dispute, as Germany has disgustingly done on behalf of Israel, even as it staves off its own neo-Nazis.
Whatever the ICJ’s verdict, it is likely to come too late to halt the genocide. It may depend on how far Israel goes henceforth, but its establishment is accustomed to defying UN injunctions — as long as the pecuniary and moral assistance from the US and the rest of the West remains intact. It does not have much to worry about on that score. Its self-conception of uber alles remains intact among its acolytes, whose every action is directed towards enabling Israel to achieve its clearly genocidal and arguably Nazi-like aims.
mahir.dawn@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024
Led by the US, Germany and UK, a number of Western nations and their allies suspended their crucial funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which was set up in 1949, in the wake of the Nakba, to provide means of subsistence to Palestinian refugees. These include basic education, primary healthcare and other vital services. Its operations stretch from Gaza and East Jerusalem to the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
A secondary distraction was provided by a drone attack that killed three US personnel and injured dozens in Jordan. US media reports suggest the drone wasn’t intercepted based on the suspicion that it might be ‘friendly’ (Israeli), and that the US authorities had no idea where it came from, although they showed no hesitation in blaming ‘Iranian-allied’ militias and vowing vengeance. That’s the latter-day equivalent of the much-mocked command to ‘round up the usual suspects’, but perhaps the bigger question is why there should be a US military base where Jordan’s borders meet those of Syria and Iraq — or anywhere else in the country.
‘Guilty until proved innocent’ also applies to UNRWA, which has previously been accused by Israel of preaching hatred in its schools — which, mind you, help to place the Palestinians among the best-educated Arab populations. The accusation cannot be taken seriously in a milieu where reciting the true history of Israel as a colonial-settler society is deemed antisemitic, and there is no equivalent focus on the pernicious nonsense drummed into the innocent minds of Israeli schoolchildren.
The ICJ’s interim verdict won’t make much of a difference.
UNRWA has suspended nine of its accused employees pending an internal probe, and two others are among the dozens of staff killed in Israel’s latest invasion of Gaza. It is distressing that the accusations involving 0.01pc of its 13,000 employees, whether or not true, have been deemed sufficient by so many Western states to cut off funding to one of the only organisations that may be able to avert a famine. All too many of them, meanwhile, continue to arm and diplomatically abet the perpetrators of what the ICJ deems a potential genocide.
That impression was consolidated on Sunday when 11 members of the Netanyahu cabinet attended a congregation in Jerusalem tagged the ‘Victory of Israel Conference: Settlement Brings Security’, which called for the ‘voluntary migration’ of Palestinians away from the Gaza Strip. That not only defies the ICJ’s interim injunction against incitement to genocide, but also reflects the Nazi attitude towards European Jews before the Germans opted for gas chambers.
Notwithstanding the ‘never again’ slogan of 80 years ago, the Zionists brought with them to the ‘promised land’ the Nazi concepts of lebensraum and untermenschen — territorial expansion and lesser beings, the first applying to European Jews and the second to Palestinians. The devotion to their would-be exterminators stretched to hiring one of Hitler’s leading henchmen, Otto Skorzeny, as a Mossad hitman — after he had, equally deplorably, served as military adviser to Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.
It was the Nazi regime’s expansionism, rather than the related Judeocide, that propelled the British and eventually joint Anglo-American response — although the latter was also instigated by the Soviet advance into Eastern Europe after the Red Army had turned the tide against the Wehrmacht. It remains to be seen how far the Israel Defence Forces will go before any nation other than the dispersed Palestinians steps up to challenge the Israelis.
The resistance so far has been restricted to so-called non-state actors. Saudi Arabia remains keen on establishing formal ties with Israel. Arab and other Muslim states have vaguely backed South Africa’s case at the ICJ, but none of them has officially signed up as a party to the dispute, as Germany has disgustingly done on behalf of Israel, even as it staves off its own neo-Nazis.
Whatever the ICJ’s verdict, it is likely to come too late to halt the genocide. It may depend on how far Israel goes henceforth, but its establishment is accustomed to defying UN injunctions — as long as the pecuniary and moral assistance from the US and the rest of the West remains intact. It does not have much to worry about on that score. Its self-conception of uber alles remains intact among its acolytes, whose every action is directed towards enabling Israel to achieve its clearly genocidal and arguably Nazi-like aims.
mahir.dawn@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2024
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