From our Leader: Indian Newslink Digital Edition dated January 15, 2024
Venkat Raman
Auckland, January 14, 2024
The world has had enough.
The War in Ukraine, the incessant bombing of Gaza in the Middle East, the Houthis’ terrorist acts targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the rise of extreme in various quarters, the alarming rise in violence and the growing unrest in many societies and communities are taking the world towards the brink of a major disaster.
Arguably, Ukraine and Gaza are the two main talking points across the Continents, with calls for Russia and Israel to end the conflict in the respective regions. While the war in Ukraine has been going on since February 20, 2014, its escalation from February 24, 2022, has led to major disruptions everywhere. Almost every country in the world is reeling under the cost of living crisis, perpetuated by soaring prices of oil and related effects, caused by the war.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza
In the Middle East, Israel’s campaign to ‘wipe out ‘ Hamas, a terrorist organisation that into Tel Aviv on October 6, 2023 and took away more than 230 Israel civilians hostage. Since then the world has watched the unfolding horror of bombings and destruction. More than 23,700 Palestinian civilians, nearly half of them children, are reported to have been killed. Calls for the end of hostilities have gone unheeded.
As the conflict entered its 100th day on January 14, 2024, hundreds of thousands of people in more than 25 countries took to the streets to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. Reports came in from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece and South Africa saying that people called on Israel to cease bombing civilian targets in Gaza. The protestors, who took part in the ‘Global Day for Action for Palestine,’ called for an immediate end to the bloodshed.
Al Jazeera reported from Kuala Lumpur that people gathered outside the United States embassy to send a message to Washington, Israel’s staunch ally that has vetoed several United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
“We have spoken to people here who say that they have come to show solidarity with Palestinians. People are holding up placards that read ‘Stop the genocide,’ as well as ‘Bombing children is not self-defence,’ the news agency’s Reporter Florence Looi said from the Malaysian Capital. Thousands of people also gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta, waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and holding signs that read “Boycott Israel” and “Ceasefire Now.”
Calls to Washington
In Johannesburg, demonstrators gathered outside the US consulate for a protest bolstered by South Africa’s case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice last week. Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller said that many in the crowd accused the US, which has supplied Israel with thousands of tonnes of military equipment since the war started, of “complicity in the bombardment of the Palestinian people.”
Thousands of people gathered in central London.
Jeanine Hourani, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement attending the march, said protesters are angry over the injustice in Gaza.
“We have been taking to the streets every week since October 7,” she told Al Jazeera, saying the British public largely supports a ceasefire but UK politicians “have continued to fund and support the genocide. We are going to continue taking to the streets, continue applying pressure, until Palestine is free,” she said.
It is a pity that Gaza, which was once a transport hub is today in ruins.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters has called for the immediate release of all remaining hostages, while ‘condemning unequivocally the terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
“We have consistently supported the right of Israel to defend itself against Hamas’ terrorist attacks, though we repeat our call for international humanitarian law to be observed by all sides and in all circumstances. Ultimately, there can be no military solution. We need to return to the Middle East Peace Process,” he said.
Praying for better times
As a part of Anthedon, it served as a trade hub for hundreds of years. Until 1948, it hosted a railway linking Cairo to Damascus. It had one of the Middle East’s first airports. But for the past 75 years, occupation by Egypt and then Israel, with a blockade for two decades, has all but cut the old junction off from the world.
Efforts to revive its transport links have repeatedly run aground. Now there is no hope.
While there is hope that such importance will return to Gaza, we will at least hope that peace will return.
As the Economist observed, “Still, Gaza seeks a sea change. For decades it has looked to the Mediterranean for salvation through offshore gasfields, hospital ships or even an idea floated by Israel for an artificial island to host a power station and to serve as a port for ferries and cargo ships. If only.”
