Palestine -Israel Conflict

The world is currently witnessing a genocide taking place in Gaza. For the last four months, Israel
has continued to kill Palestinians, including babies, children, women, elderly people, innocent
civilians, journalists who cover the Israeli attacks and even United Nations employees. According to
Gaza’s Health Ministry, The Palestinian death toll from Israel's deadly offensive against the Gaza
Strip since Oct. 7 has soared to 29,410 and at least 69,465 other people have also been injured in the
onslaught. According to the United Nations, the Israeli onslaught has pushed 85% of Gaza’s
population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while
60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. Israeli forces bomb civilian
apartments, hospitals, schools, ambulances, mosques, churches, refugee camps and U.N. facilities.
Today, children of Gaza are not going to school, and instead, parents struggle to protect their children
from hunger, displacement, and bombardment. Beyond doubt, Israel’s military operations have
spread massive destruction and killed civilians on a scale and there is widespread consensus that war
crimes are being committed in Gaza. Hundreds of millions of people across the world have been
deeply moved by the atrocity of the Israeli war on Palestine. Millions have attended marches and
protests. Social media, in almost all the world’s languages, is saturated with memes and posts about
this or that terrible action. Despite all these responses over atrocities, no one has taken a concrete step
to save the innocent Gazan people from Israeli brutality. The brutality of the oppression and massacres
committed in Gaza by the Israeli administration received unlimited support from Western
governments.

The Muslim countries have also failed to stop atrocities of Israel in Gaza. The overall population of
Muslims worldwide is more than 1.7 billion. Muslims rule more than 57 states on different continents.
Large and effective Muslim minorities live in almost every non-Muslim state. In spite of this huge
population, Muslims cannot provide effective support to the Gazan people. One of the main reasons
for the ineffectiveness of the Muslim Ummah context is the cold response of the Arab world over
matters of great importance for Ummah. Some of the Arab states are economically strong and have
a say in politics, so the Muslim states of Asia and Africa expect the Arab world to play a leading role
in matters relevant to the Muslim world. Moreover, Muslim states cannot provide concrete support
to the Palestinians without the contribution of some Arab states, which are the immediate neighbors
of Palestine. The reluctant behavior of the Arab world to involve in any matter of international
importance for the Muslim world weakens the strength of the Ummah. In the current situation, we
can observe that one of the main reasons why Arabs remain silent amid the genocidal acts in Gaza is
the death of Arab society. The so-called Arab Spring actually brought a harsh Arab winter, as the new
Arab governments maximized their pressure against their respective peoples to prolong their rules.
Most of us also know the fact that the Muslim world is facing fragmentation and in this prevailing
situation the Arab bloc does not intend to support Palestinians in a way that can benefit the Iranian-
backed Hamas. Most rich Arab nations sell their oil and gas to the West or their allies and buy military
equipment to sustain their rule against assumed hostilities from within.

All organizations of the Muslim world including the Arab League and OIC have no contribution to
unite the Muslim world and play any effective roles in the economic and political affairs of the world.
Overall Muslim world is weak, fragmented and fractured. Its human development index is the poorest
among all major population blocs while its vulnerabilities are laid bare in today’s world where
knowledge, education and technology underline the economic and social strength in a society.
Briefly, expecting from Ummah to protect the interests of the Muslim World is vague and impractical.
The Muslim countries must revise their policies and the leaders of the Muslim world should not forget
the Islamic teachings that say “The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are
just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness
and fever”. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim)”.

Some of the countries are showing courage to support Palestinians. For instance, nations like South
Africa, Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia have displayed unwavering courage by severing diplomatic ties
and recalling their ambassadors from Israel. South Africa is also among the five countries, along with
Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti, that have called for an International Criminal Court
investigation into Israel’s war on Gaza.
The response of the International organizations including the United Nations openly favors and
justifies Israeli aggression in the name of self-defence. The United States recently vetoed U.N.
resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled
Gaza Strip, saying it would interfere with negotiations on a deal to free hostages abducted in Israel.
The European countries including UK, Germany and France fully support Israel on all international
forums.
The International Court of Justice over South Africa’s case against Israel ruled that Israel must do all
it can to prevent genocide, including refraining from harming or killing Palestinians. It also ruled that
Israel must urgently get basic aid to Gaza and that the country should punish any incitement to
genocide, among other measures. However, the court stopped short of ordering an end to the military
offensive that has demolished Palestinian territories. Israeli authorities believed that the decision not
to order a cease-fire was received with some relief since it helped Israel to avoid a collision with a
top U.N. body. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response “We will continue to do what is
necessary to defend our country and defend our people,” shows that Israel is not moved by ICJ ruling.
Israel and its allies US, UK believe that the decision of the court is not as not as bad as was feared it
would be and would not fundamentally alter the way the military conducts the war.

The international community should be ashamed of the response of the United Nations Security
Council and European and other states that are backing Israeli cruelties.