(Survivor of Israeli missile attack, Nov 2006)"When people see us, they are going to say oh my God, that's horrible, and then go on eating their dinners." (Joaquin Phoenix on how the International community ignored the Rwandan genocide, Hotel Rwanda)
The visceral image above was posted with the intention of inspiring shock. Granted, the child above might have been a victim of collateral damage. It is, however, most disconcerting that the majority of suffering caused by Israel in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine, is far from collateral. It is rather the result of a blatant disregard for some of the most fundamental rights and needs of people. I think Barack Obama's statement that “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people,” though opinionated and laudably crazy for a US presidential candidate, aptly illustrates the fact that the suffering the Palestinians face is not one off and isolated, but perhaps very much a part of their every day life. Noam Chomsky, a lingustic professor with MIT, in criticising the US-backed Israel's abuse of human rights in his book, Failed States, quotes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that in the West Bank,
... Palestinians under occupation (are) "the most water-deprived people in the entire region; indeed one of the most deprived in the world" while Israel takes for itself 80 percent of the water extracted from West Bank aquifiers...
and that in the Gaza strip, Chomsky, quoting Haaretz's Amira Haas,... (Jews) lived "in a flourishing park and splendid villas just 20m away from overcrowded refugee camps." They could "turn on the sprinklers on the lawn while just across the way, 20 000 other people are dependent on the distribution of drinking water in tankers" ...
Besides this un-addressed problem of the gross lack of water, at the moment, the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights(PHR) warn of an impending Humanitarean Crisis that Israel might cause due to the closing of several key roads into Palestinian territory, thus cutting off the supplies of essentials. The PHR, on their website, urged their government not to:
"stand idly by at a time when fundamental human rights of Gaza residents are being violated, including the most essential of all rights – the right to life and physical integrity."
Whether the Israeli government does stand idly, or perhaps change their stance to what the PHR and, I suppose, the majority of us would consider to be moral waits to be seen, but their current actions once again demonstrate a lack of regard for the fundamental well-being of Palestinians.
Besides the above mentioned, Israel's Human Rights track record is not pretty. They have been consistently criticized by the UN and other watchdogs for their continual violation of human rights, unfortunately. to no avail. This is likely caused by US veto against some of the decisions passed in the UN with regards to Israel, often rendering international pressure on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis ineffective. This is, in no small part due to the immense Jewish lobby in the United States.
At this point in time, I hope I will not be perceived as anti-semitic, nor be seen as ignorant to the challenges Israel face from a very volatile region. However, Israel's respect of Palestinian rights is perhaps the cornerstone in alleviating the crisis there, even as the violence between Hamas and Fatah rages on. The onus is perhaps really on the us, the international community, and especially Americans to take the long arduous process of nudging the governments involved into greater positive action.
Though my understanding is largely limited, I feel that even those with a pro-Israel perspective inspired by religion, including right-winged evangelicals, can pressurize the Israeli government to stop their abuse of rights without being untrue or treacherous to their beliefs. They would rather, be aligning themselves with what is stated in the Bible:
Isaiah 58:6-7
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them...
Perhaps at this moment, some might just be smirking, amused that one idiosyncratic Singaporean man would think that he could possibly tell a people so far away what to think or do. I confess that it is the zenith of vanity to even think I could change anything, but in typing this post, I was reminded of two schoolmates during my Junior College days. They who sold cheap wristbands in order to raise funds for the crisis in Sudan. They probably hoped that they would be able to effect change, no matter how insignificant, to alleviate the suffering there. It is perhaps with the same sort of idealism that I write this post. Also, it would be, perhaps, worthy to remember that the international community's inertia in places like Rwanda was sparked into action by public opinion.
And just perhaps, if we did more than just continue eating our dinners and shout and yell enough, we might be able to just make that modicum of difference in the world we live in. I am of course aware it might possibly not work at all, but I guess its worth a shot, isn't it?
"All it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke
Sources and References:
Failed States, Noam Chomsky
(http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=24&catid=51&pcat=51&lang=ENG)
(http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=471&catid=41&pcat=41&lang=ENG)
