This was followed by a series of solemn events across the country. Pro-Israeli events, seen across the world commemorated the victims of the October 7 attack and demanding the return of hostages held by Hamas.
Peace movements, across the world, marked the day with a range of demonstrations calling for an end to the ongoing conflict. Rallies took place in many cities, including London, Paris, New York, Cape Town, Bengaluru and Jakarta, where activists called for a ceasefire, an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and justice for people in Gaza.
While the contours of a tragedy cannot solely be measured by numbers, arithmetic is important when exploring the principles of proportionality.
The initial attack by Hamas saw the death of around 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians. A hundred hostages remain unaccounted for, 70 of whom are presumed to be dead. The number of Israelis killed in ongoing military operations and due to rocket attacks from Lebanon and the recent missile attack from Iran number in the hundreds. The Iran attack led to one causality, that of a Palestinian from Gaza.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza report 41,495 Palestinian fatalities until day 355 of the attack. However, in an open letter dated 2nd October 2024 to the President of USA, from 99 American medical professionals who served in Gaza argue that deaths caused directly by violence are typically the smallest number in the context of large-scale protracted conflict. Adding factors of malnutrition and disease, they put the death toll at more than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population. The medical professionals who served in Gaza claim that marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both. When Gaza mothers feel guilt for bringing a child into a world of war and suffering, one can only imagine at the extremes of despair and hopeless experienced by people living there.
When in the first 100 days from October 7, 2023, Israeli forces had killed more than 1% of Gaza’s population, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia (UNESCWA) had asked if it could be called the twenty-first century’s deadliest 100 days? “No other armed conflict in the twenty-first century has experienced such a devastating impact on a population in such a short timeframe.”
In the same period, Lebanon’s health ministry reports more than 2,023 people have been killed in their country due to Israeli airstrikes and bombardments, including 127 children and 261 women. In April 2024, an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate killed senior members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
While Israel has the right to defend itself, the scale and intensity of its military response, especially when seen in the context of direct and in direct harm to civilians, is completely disproportionate to any justifiable military objective.
In fact, it flies against January 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that called on Israel to take all necessary actions to prevent genocidal acts, ensure the safety of civilians, and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Of course, the story does not begin on October 7, 2023, it begins in the early 20th century, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, and the British mandate over Palestine, the rise of Jewish immigration to the region, spurred by the Zionist movement, which sought to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Then in 1948 the first Nakba, meaning “catastrophe”, a term used by Palestinians to describe the forced exodus of over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes. In 1967 the occupation of West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and other territories in 1967.
As on ongoing problem the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the blockade of Gaza going on since 2007.
And the controversial Israeli military strategy, known as “mowing the lawn” which refers to recurrent military campaigns as a necessary, repetitive process to manage “security threats” from Gaza – most often associated with large-scale operations such as Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), Operation Protective Edge (2014), and other military actions, resulting in significant casualties and destruction in Gaza.
The United Nations (UN) and international agencies have and continue to play critical roles in addressing the humanitarian and legal aspects of the Gaza conflict. Several key agencies, including the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and international human rights organizations, have worked in incredibly difficult conditions to do their best to alleviate the immediate suffering of civilians and trying to ensure compliance with international law. However, despite calls for ceasefire by various UN bodies, including the Security Council, the US, UK, and several EU nations have blocked or limited UN resolutions, leaving it helpless bystander to events.
While the actions of many countries of the Global South, led by South Africa, are indicative of the resilience of the Bandung Spirit. We must note with dismay how many have left the stance of resolute support for one of ambivalence and inaction. In fact, the continuing apathy to death and human suffering, seen in the last four years of the third decade of the twenty-first century, brings us terrifying close to the 1930s, when an exiled Bertolt Brecht wrote thus about the developments in his country – Nazi Germany.
“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!”
When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.”
In a situation where effectively, the world is turning a deaf ear to the cries of help and a blind eye on the inhuman crimes happening in Gaza, for Palestinians resistance has become existence. The term encapsulates the Palestinian experience of enduring and resisting against political, social, and economic challenges in West Asia. It speaks to the broader struggle of living under occupation, where everyday acts of survival are intertwined with broader efforts for freedom and self-determination. While justice-loving people exist, resistance will continue.
The only signs of hope can be seen in the unprecedented rise of people’s protests, including the students protest across the globe in May 2024, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. This global peace movement demanding cease fire in Gaza remains a powerfully profound message for the 21st Century. It is with them that we can see the seeds of a new world order, decolonised and rooted in love, hope and justice.
*The writer is an Indian activist who advocate a more just new world order.
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