‘We Palestinians Have Lost All Faith in Govts, We Can Rely Only On The People’

As we, Palestinians of Gaza, embark on our long walk to freedom, we have come to the conclusion that we can no longer rely on governments, what with the UNSC failing to endorse a resolution calling for a ceasefire; instead, we request that the citizens of the world oppose these ongoing deadly crimes.

The failure of the United Nations and its numerous organisations to condemn the ongoing genocide of Gaza by apartheid Israel proves their complicity.

We have also come to the conclusion that only civil society is able to mobilise to demand the implementation of international law and put an end to Israel's unprecedented impunity. Our inspiration is the anti-apartheid movement.

The intervention of civil society was effective in the late 1980s against the apartheid regime of White South Africa. Nelson Mandela, before his eminent death, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, amongst other anti-apartheid activists, did not not only describe Israel’s oppressive and violent control of Palestinians as Apartheid, they also joined this call for the world’s civil society to intervene again.

In fact, we expect people of conscience and civil society organisations to put pressure on their governments until Israel is forced to abide by international law and international humanitarian law. It did work last century; without the intervention of the international community which was effective against apartheid in South Africa, Israel will continue its war crimes and crimes against humanity until all Palestinians disappear.

We need to be more specific about our demands. We want civil society organisations worldwide to intensify the anti-Israel sanctions campaign to compel Israel to end its aggression. It has become crystal clear that the international conspiracy of silence towards the genocide taking place against the 2.3 million civilians in Gaza indicates complicity in these war crimes.

Worse still, the colonial West is getting directly involved by aiding apartheid Israel with the weapons of mass destruction needed to annihilate the Palestinian people. Last week, the 200th air plane since the beginning of the genocide loaded with the most sophisticated weaponry from the United States of America landed at Ben Gurion airport.

It is high-time that the international community demands that the rogue State of Israel, a state that has violated every single international law one can think of, end its medieval siege of Gaza and compensate for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has visited upon the Palestinian people.

But this should also come within a package of demands to be made by all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organisations that still believe in the rule of law and basic human rights:

• An immediate ceasefire
• Flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza
• International protection of Gaza civilians
• An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip since 2006 for voting against the fictional two-state solution and the Oslo Accords
• The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention.
• That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be provided with material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing at the hands of Israeli Occupation Forces
• Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the IOF in the Gaza Strip.
• Holding Israeli generals and leaders accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the civilians of Gaza.
• An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes committed by Israel.

Why is that too much to ask ?!

Haidar Eid is a Palestinian scholar of international repute who lived in Gaza till a few days ago.The Citizen will be carrying his story. This is the second article he has written in his few days as a refugee and a survivor, amidst grief and deep trauma.

Cover Photograph: Pro Palestinian rally outside the Danis Parliament in central Copenhagen. Emil Helms/EPA

The Israeli assault on Gaza has killed 86 journalists so far.