People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

Stop This Incendiary Barbarism

ISRAEL has, once again, displayed its inhuman capabilities by unleashing a horrendous military attack on the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Having aerially bombarded the Gaza, killing hundreds of innocent people, Israel has now moved its armed forces in a war of aggression against the Palestinians. As we go to press, 40 civilian refugees were killed last night in a United Nations school and three more in another school.

If US imperialism had not vetoed a UN-sponsored ceasefire on Monday, at least these 43 civilians, many of them women and children, would have been alive. This is the criminal nature of US imperialism�s support to Israeli aggressions. Barak Obama�s silence is doing little credit to the hype and expectations that were aroused with his victory. However, as we repeatedly stated in these columns, a leopard never changes its spots.

The gory images of children being massacred should normally melt even hearts of stone. But not, of course, those of US imperialist patronised Israelis. In this aggression alone, over 600 civilians have died so far and thousands of others maimed or injured. Israel�s plea that it is taking this action to stop the violation of the ceasefire by the Hamas and its rockets being fired into Israeli territory is specious, to say the least. It was Israel which broke the ceasefire first on November 4, 2008 when its bombardment killed six Palestinians in Gaza and, again on November 17, when another bombardment killed four more Palestinians.

Since 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred by Israel. Of these, a large number have been innocent civilians. Israel�s 1982 invasion of Lebanon left 17,500 civilians, mostly children and women, dead. The Sabra-Chatila massacre left 1700 civilians dead. The 1996 Qana massacre left 106 Lebanese civilian refugees dead at a UN base. Over a thousand civilians died in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. This horrendous list continues.

Such barbarity is perpetrated in the name of fighting Palestinian terrorism. The root cause of the conflict in West Asia continues to remain the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. If there is a terrorist strike against Israel, after it has withdrawn from all occupied territories, then the whole world would condemn such terrorism. If, however, Israel continues to illegally occupy Palestinian lands and deny the Palestinians their birth right to a homeland, then the responsibility for continuing the hostilities lies squarely with Israel. Under these circumstances, such State-sponsored terrorism by Israel cannot be acceptable.

The USA and Israel list Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Now, it was the same USA that had insisted upon democratic elections to be held within Palestinian territories as a precondition for taking forward the peace process. In these elections, universally acknowledged by western observers to be free and fair, the Hamas won. For US imperialism and Israel, however, democratic elections must always throw up those whom they want elected and not those whom the Palestinian people want. Having asked for elections and overseeing them, US imperialism and Israel now refuse to accept the democratic verdict of the Palestinian people. It is this blatant refusal to accept popular mandate of the people in a democracy by US and Israel that is the root cause for the current hostilities that Israel is unleashing against the Palestinians.

Under these circumstances, it is incumbent upon the government of India to immediately cease all military cooperation with Israel. India cannot be a party to finance the inhuman Israeli juggernaut. Further, India must exercise its influence amongst the developing countries to mobilise for an effective implementation of an immediate ceasefire and for eventual realisation of the Palestinian nation.

In this context, the reactions in the Indian media, particularly the electronic media, bordering on supreme indifference needs to be noted. The macho aggressiveness displayed by the electronic media in asking India to fight terrorism with irresponsible adventurism apparently finds a sympathetic echo in this Israeli barbarism. They, thus, forget that during the last four decades and more, after Israel illegally annexed Palestinian and Arab territories, neither that country nor the region has been at peace. State terrorism and individual terrorism feed each other.

Peace-loving humanity cannot and should not allow such barbarity to continue. Israeli aggression against the Palestinians must immediately stop. Currently, Israel is refusing even to pause its aggression to allow humanitarian aid to flow to Palestinians. It is, thus, ensuring that many more innocent civilian Palestinians will die in the absence of food and medicines.

The Indian people, who have always stood by the Palestinians in their genuine struggle for a homeland since the days of our independence struggle, must today rise in protest against this inhuman Israeli attack. This expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people must be accompanied by the much-required humanitarian assistance.

While conveying our deepest solidarity with the Palestinians in this grim battle, the Indian people must also mount pressure on the Indian government to do likewise.

(January 7, 2009)