Tag: palestine

Categories
Enough said

Why are we silent on Gaza?

Not only is India and its Government not reacting to the Gaza killings, it is punishing protestors here in brutal ways.
by Humra Quraishi

It is a strange situation – the country says nothing about the ongoing crisis in Gaza, where the death toll has already reached over 600 people, but it quickly quashes any form of protests.

I would like to know why security forces killed an unarmed 14-year-old om the Kashmir Valley. The boy was protesting against Israel’s brutal killings of Palestinians in the Gaza settlement. At least the young boy had the courage to speak out on a subject most of us are silent on. But what happened? He got killed for exercising his basic right to protest.

Gaza under attackThe bigger question is: even as besieged Palestinians in Gaza are killed, why is the world so removed from their pain? Where is our human instinct to react to genocides of this scale? Of course, why talk of the world when our own political rulers are not outraged enough?

Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, has already categorically stated that the Government will not react to the current Israel-Palestine crisis. Why? Is Israel such a major force in the Indian scheme of things? Is it donating or selling arms technology to India? What is its hold on the Government?

Throughout a long career in journalism, I have been interviewing Palestinian envoys and the severe crises their countrymen have been facing for decades. One of the first Palestinian envoys to India, Dr Khaled El-Sheikh, was a member of the Al-Fatah movement for freedom before he joined the diplomatic service. The turning point came for him when his 18-year-old nephew was killed by the Israeli occupation forces, leaving him devastated. He was succeeded by Osama Musa, a former Air Force Chief of Palestine who was a blunt speaker. After Yasser Arafat’s death, he had said to me, “We are occupied, slaves to the masters – Americans and Israelis – to such an extent that we had to take permission from them to bury our leader Arafat.

He had spoken about America’s role in the long-simmering situation. “Can’t America see the killings taking place on a daily basis? Without America’s support, Israel is zero. Israel cannot survive a day if America does not support it.”

In the mean time, how about if we in India protest in a non-violent way and shun Israel-made goods?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist and the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Pictures courtesy 972mag.com, todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com)

Categories
Event

Muslim mass rally on Friday

Leaders in city have called for a rally to pressurise Indian Government to petition UN on terror acts in Syria.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

International al-Quds Day is an annual event on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and the holy mosque Al-Aqsa, located in Jerusalem (Palestine). Today Muslim leaders in the city united under the banner of Quds Committee in order to condemn the terror acts taking place around the world, specifically in Iraq, Syria and Palestine. The speakers condemned the 17 serial blasts in Iraq which took place on Monday, and the ongoing terror activities happening since several years in Palestine and Syria. They said that Islam being a religion of peace, respects freedom for all countrymen and a secure life.

Press conference at Patrakar SanghA press conference to discuss the same was held today at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, CST.

The leaders also condemned the Israeli and American activities in the land of Palestine, which has been colonised by the Israeli occupants for many years. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, the leaders said, “Palestine belongs to the Arab, as France belongs to the French and Britain belongs to the British.” They asked the Government of India to send a petition to the UN and take some active steps in the international political scenario to make tge US stop funding and supporting the terror activities.

The committee has also decided to organise a mass rally on this Friday, August 2, from Khoja Masjid, Dongri, to get support from people and ask the Government to take strong steps soon.

The participating speakers were Maulana Hasnain Kararvi, Maulana Fayyaz Baqri, Sarfaraz Arzoo,  Maulana Husain Mehdi Husaini, Aliraza Namdar, Maulana Farman Sahab and Maulana Abulqasim.

(Picture courtesy www.latitudenews.com)

Categories
Enough said

The pain of Gaza

Humra Quraishi writes on how our collective detachment to the Gaza crisis and our pro-Israel stand has affected Arab-Indo relations.

I’ve been watching scenes of complete disaster in the Gaza belt unfold on my TV screen, and I am left wondering: where are the so-called world leaders who talk of peace? Where is the US President, Barack Obama, who ought to start his second term in power by trying to save the lives of hapless Palestinians; if nothing else, then at least to win a few brownie points! Where is the United Nations at the moment? And more to the point, where is our own government?

I confess I am shamed and shocked at the muted response to the barbaric killings of Palestinians. We sit detached as scores of Palestinians are being killed and pushed to the  edge in their own homeland. Is this happening because of our pro-America, pro-Israel tilt? If it is, then our current politics is a far cry from the time when Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira  Gandhi had close personal ties with the Arab nations, and with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

I’d attended a few receptions in New Delhi, where Indira Gandhi had honoured Yasser Arafat, and he, in turn, had showered praises on his ‘sister’ Indira. And it’s a well-known fact that in the 1950s, Nehru had gifted a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi’s Prithvi Raj Road to the first Iraqi envoy to India. The bungalow still stands, tall and elegant, but it is just about vacant. After Iraq was pounded by the American forces, the Iraqi embassy here shrank rapidly, gradually reduced to nothingness.

While covering the social scene of the capital city for almost three decades, I have witnessed the years when traditional Arab hospitality and warmth held sway here. The frequent parties and luncheons at the homes of envoys of Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Kuwait and Qatar were not just vibrant, they relayed warmth. And the Arab-India bonding lasted till about the time America and the allied forces invaded Iraq.

Even today, the plight of the Palestinians gets buried in the back pages of our newspapers, accompanied by occasional pictures of hundreds dying. We tend to overlook the complete picture, the historical context, and the very basics of the problem. In this context, I quote Palestinian envoy to India, Osama Musa, who had once said to me, “We have been under occupation all these years, over several decades. Can’t America see the killings that take place on a daily basis? I tell you, without America’s support, Israel is zero. Israelcannot survive a single day if America doesn’t support it. Israel is equipped by tanks and war planes, whereas we Palestinians only have a police force armed by mere pistols.”

He added, “You ask how peace will come about? It will happen the day Israel ends its occupation. We have been telling the Israelis to leave us alone. We are restricted to only 23  per cent of the total land that originally belonged to us. The rest is with Israel. Their policies have affected over six million Palestinians – of which three million are displaced, and the other three million live in their own land as slaves, not as free citizens.”

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist. She has authored Kashmir: The Untold Story, and is co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Featured image courtesy www.csmonitor.com) 

 

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