The Gaza massacre and global amnesia

Donny Syofyan, Padang | Fri, 06/04/2010 11:22 AM | Opinion
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Again and again, Israel violated international law as it had shown off its flagrant aggression upon humanitarian aid boats in the past few days. Israeli commandos boarded the flotilla about 80 miles from Gaza’s coast, part of international waters.

Citizens of the world have been on the streets, opposing furiously and urging retaliation against the intentional massacre. Many international figures and organizations, such as United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, EU president Herman van Rompuy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the UN Security Council, have called for a broad and fair investigation.

Unfortunately, US President Barack Obama simply came up with mild response, sorrow for the loss of lives on one side and expressing the importance of immediately learning all the facts and circumstances around the tragic events.

The Palestinian issue is a never-ending humanitarian catastrophe. There seems to be a tendency that it is no longer typically a Muslim concern, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference. Rather, Palestinian calamity turns into the world’s concern regardless of religion and nation.

As for the flotilla, this is evident seen from various volunteers and passengers on board, including Swedish author Henning Mankell and the Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire to mention just a few.

However, following long US support on Israel through its veto power in the UN for more than fifty years, the Palestinian issue has been and is always being neglected by the world. Indeed, it is subject to global amnesia at least for two reasons.

First, the Palestinian issue failed to establish global solidarity of Muslim countries, especially Arab countries. Arab governments have no great leader capable of unifying trivial splits among themselves, like what Gamal Abdel Nasser achieved during Arab-Israeli War in 1967.

This is not to mention that Muslim organizations such the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference are more like toothless tigers.

Waves of demonstrations in Arab countries and around the world now are more organized and carried out by Islamic or Muslim and human right organizations for fundraising. At the government level, Arab countries are only busy in condemning only, or publicly known as “NATO” (No Action Talk Only). They must go beyond their traditional stands, such as imposing economic embargoes on Israel and urging Egypt to open its border with Gaza Strip to channel humanitarian aid.

Second, the Palestinian issue is always associated with blaming the victims, not the aggressor. The humanitarian aid, including the six-boat flotilla, is necessary for Gaza because Gazans received nothing from the months of ceasefire. There was no restoration of a dignified existence. A couple of days before the flotilla tragedy, the UN Refugee Works Relief Agency’s (UNWRA) operations head for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, expressed that supplies were already restricted to the point where Palestinians were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position with very little food left.

It is ironic that humanitarian aid from the international community for starving Gazans are regarded by the Israeli government as delegitimizing its existence and endorsing terrorist, that is to say, Hamas.

Does it make sense that supplying the hungry Gazans means helping terrorists? Why is Hamas named a terrorist organization while it was democratically elected? How can we be in favor of Israel’s actions spurning Palestinians by dividing Gaza and the West Bank, co-opting Mamoud Abbas, inciting Fatah against Hamas, isolating Gaza, and pursuing a policy of aggression, killing, targeted assassination, mass incarceration, and torture with full support from Washington and the West?

Israel is a serial aggressor. Hamas responds in self-defense as international law allows. Article 51 of the UN Charter permits the “right of an individual or collective self-defense [against an armed attack] until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain international peace and security”.

Any attempt to stop Israel’s aggression is a must, not only to shape peace in the Middle East but also to pave the way for friendly relations between Islam and the West. Scapegoating Palestinians as victims and supporting Israel in an unconditional manner is nothing more than celebrating the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacre and the dispossession of more people from their land.

At last, the failure to figure out the Gaza tragedy on a fair footing will make dreams of global solidarity and integrity in the future even more unknown, unheard or unheeded.

The writer is a lecturer at Andalas University, Padang. He graduated from the University of Canberra, Australia.