AN independent Commission of Inquiry set up in 2018 by the United Nations Human Rights Council said Israeli forces intentionally fired at civilians (who were protesting the Jewish regime’s atrocities) killing 189 fenced-in Palestinians and injuring more than 6,000 others, including journalists, health workers, children and the disabled.
The inquiry came to an inescapable conclusion: Israeli forces had committed war crimes. Two years on and there isn’t a word on this from the crippled International Criminal Court (ICC). War crimes and genocides have been going on for the longest time, but the ICC continues to turn a blind eye at the behest of the powerful West.
When the Jews are killed it is Holocaust, but when the Palestinians are maimed and murdered it is mere misadventure. Injustice, it seems, has friends in very high places.
Little wonder Malaysia, small though it is, continues to lambast the Zionist regime and bigots who continue to sponsor its atrocities. Most recently, on Friday, at the International Conference on the Question of Palestine, themed “Southeast Asian Support for the Palestinian People”, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
But this sound of fury is often stifled by the powerful West. In Europe and the United States, it is fast becoming a crime to call for a boycott of Israel. We ask, is it a crime to call for the end of the occupation of Palestinian land? Is it a crime to ask for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were driven out?
Malaysia must not be cowed. It must marshal global support against atrocities and persecution, not only in the Middle East, but also in Asia and Africa. It should not rest until the Benjamin Netanyahus of the world are locked away for good.
Sadly, Southeast Asia’s silence is deafening. Murdering Myanmar is mum for a reason. There, the military regime is on a genocidal extermination of the Rohingya. This is shameful. The larger Asia, too, isn’t free of such shame.
The sad tales of the Uighurs in China and the minorities in India, especially the Muslims, are reminders of how low humans can stoop. Last week, at least 42 were killed and 300 were injured in a carnage unleashed on India’s Muslims.
We must thank the free press in India for bringing the plight of the persecuted to the attention of the world, though it is not easy being a journalist in the subcontinent. In 2014 and 2015, 21 journalists have been reported to have lost their lives because of their journalism. Despite this, the mainstream media are at their vociferous best fighting for a just place for everyone in India.
We stand in solidarity with our fellow Indian men of the nib. There is no better cause to fight for than the cause of justice for our fellow men. Long live the quill!
Adolf Hitler got away with bloody murder because it was the 1940s. But how do the Netanyahus of this world get away with genocide in the 21st century?
And, most of all, why are the Jews, of all people, having suffered at the hands of the Germans, going on a genocidal mission of their own to exterminate the Palestinians? We venture an answer: because the so-called civilised West breeds barbarians for their own ends. Betrayals are often made of this.