Syeda Mahnoor Fatima
Since 1948, Israel has tried to erase the Palestinians from their lands and to erase the possibility of a Palestinian homeland. The ‘catastrophe’ was the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes, which since then has expanded to the apartheid conditions for Palestinians inside Israel, to the occupation of Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, and to the denial of the right to return of the Palestinians who went into exile. In late April 2021, Human Rights Watch (New York) published an important report with a clarifying headline, A Threshold Crossed. Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution. In early May, Israel attempted to illegally evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah (Jerusalem).The stepfamilies had settled in this part of Jerusalem when they had been expelled by the Israelis from their homes, and now they were to be expelled again.
These families and their neighbors refused to budge. They have the right to resist, since their land is part of what the United Nations designates as the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), land that the occupier – namely Israel – manages but does not have the right to alter. When the Palestinians resisted, they faced harsh violence from Zionist settlers and from the Israeli border police, who entered the al-Aqsa mosque as part of a policy to humiliate the Palestinians. Palestinians in Gaza, also part of the OPT, had warned that if Israel and the Zionists did not stop these outrages, they would face a barrage of rockets; since there was no halt to the attacks, Palestinians in Gaza fired rockets at Israel.
The rockets did not start or define the brutality that followed. The rockets came as part of a resistance – backed by international law – of an illegal occupation. Constant bombardment of Gaza, one of the world’s largest concentration camps, since 2006 has defined Israel’s management of the OPT. On 7th October ,2023 The Palestinians entered into the premises of Israel and attacked. This was a reaction to the Israeli grimness. America has decided to help Israel which is against humanity.
Now, it’s time to help our brothers. If we look into the past, when Israel was attacking Palestine no one stood against its illegal occupation and attacks which were killing not only Adults but also Child and women, destroying buildings and Palestinian’s homeland. And now, when Palestine is taking revenge against violation of their rights the world is on the stream line. It’s time to help our brothers. We stand with the Palestinians, with the right to a homeland, their right to return to their home, and their righto resist the occupation. Our reaction to the terrible violence against the Palestinians is shaped by our reading of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 1514 (1960), ‘The process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible and, in order to avoid serious crises, an end must be put to colonialism and all practices of segregation and discrimination associated therewith’. United Nations Should not forget their resolution and the principles of humanity. Everyone has to stand with Palestine.
Write is Student of Law College at University of Sargodha