This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 11, 2023 - December 17, 2023

The plight of the Palestinians driven away from their homeland in what was known as a country named Palestine, now Israel, is the greatest human tragedy recorded after World War II, which ended in 1945.

The irony is the Jews, who suffered the most during the holocaust by Nazi German and vowed “never again” would it happen to the Jewish community, through the extremist Zionist regime now in power in Tel Aviv, are inflicting much worse punishment on the Palestinians — the same people who welcomed them to their homeland and after WWII.

One wonders how it was allowed to happen, why it happened and why the world — notably the governments of US and the UK that created the problem and hostilities by dividing the country — is not acknowledging the nakba, or catastrophe, that led to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

We are now at the end of 2023, and there still appears to be no end to this already 75-year-old tragedy. This sort of tragedy, an apartheid system of the highest degree, should no longer exist in this modern world. It should have been dismantled and the problems solved long ago, led by the developed world — which supposedly holds freedom, independence, liberty and human rights as bastions of their living standards.

As the war raged in tiny, cramped Gaza — a war in which many more civilians, notably children and women, died than soldiers — the Norwegian Refugee Council said the violence there “now ranks among the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age”.

How can US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron turn a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? Why can’t they rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and get him to agree to a ceasefire and stop the bombings, so that humanitarian aid can flow into Gaza unhindered?

Or is Netanyahu so much more powerful than Biden, Sunak or Macron that he cannot be pressured to ease his onslaught on Gaza? Without international pressure, the Israeli right-wing extremist government will not give an inch and will continue to ignore world condemnation.

Without this much badly needed humanitarian aid, and as winter approaches, more civilians and children will die. How many more will perish before the world leaders — led by the US, UK and France, who have veto power in the United Nations Security Council — set aside their political interests and prioritise what is more important: saving lives?

As I write, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the UN charter, which allows him to call a meeting of the Security Council on his initiative to issue warnings about new threats to international peace and security, and matters that are not yet on the council’s agenda. But can this press the Security Council to take action on a ceasefire that will allow humanitarian aid into Gaza?

I am hoping that a lasting ceasefire will be in place, sooner rather than later, but looking at the latest developments, it is like hoping against hope, if things are left to the American, British and French politicians.

That is why the world has to continue to rally around the Palestinians and pressure the world leaders to do the right thing. That is why we should not stop talking about the Palestinians, if a fair and just solution is to be found. In the age of social media, the world can rally to explain the history of the Palestinians’ plight better and not rely only on news from the mainstream international media, which have their own agenda.

In this respect, prominent Jewish personalities such as American political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein, who has done much research on the Palestinian-Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Canadian physician and child expert Dr Gabor Mate have been at the forefront of giving a different narrative, one that is counter to that of Israel being the victim and not the occupying force — a popular stance taken by Washington and London.

Finkelstein and Mate have families who died and survived the Holocaust.

There are many rabbis in the US, notably in New York, who are against what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank and the occupation. Coming from them are statements such as “the state of Israel and Zionism does not represent all Jews”, “Judaism cannot accept Zionism and that the existence of Zionist Israel is antithetical to Judaism”, “all lands should be returned to the Palestinian people”, “protest against Jewish illegal settlers” and “the call for long-lasting peace”.

Among the Western artists, who are at risk of being labelled as anti-Semitic, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has spoken out strongly against the occupation. Movie stars such as Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo are looking at the current conflict from a different perspective. For her activism, Sarandon was reported to have lost a role in an upcoming movie.

Strong Jewish control over movie and recording studios, notably in Hollywood, has caused many artists who are also activists to avoid the Palestinian issue, which is considered taboo. Yet, to some, what Israel has done to the Palestinians over many decades is just one step too far.

Vanessa Redgrave, for example, remains unapologetic for referring to “Zionist hoodlums” in her Academy Award acceptance speech 45 years ago.

There is a better understanding of the issue and protests in the Western world, which helps give the conflict more prominence, but the Arab world remains politically disunited, while the rest of the Muslim nations are not strong enough politically and economically to mount strong pressure for an international intervention and resolution to the crisis. It does not help that at the UN Security Council, the US, the UK and France have the power to veto resolutions that are deemed not to be in the interest of Israel.

But the world, Malaysia included, must not stop talking about Palestine. Their being silent is the reason Israel can continue to do what it has done for the past 75 years. “Never again” for the Jews must be “never again” for anyone, including the long-suffering Palestinians.

Azam Aris is an editor emeritus at The Edge 

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