Gaza Human Suffering and Failure of Israel War Policy to Defeat Hamas Terrorism
Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we do not return to acting like a sane country. (Yair Golan, Israel Democrats Leader)
Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said last week that 14,000 babies in Gaza were at risk of dying within two days if essential aid was not allowed into the war-torn territory.
Israeli military action against Hamas has become wholly disproportionate to the original act of terrorism by Hamas against Israel and the ongoing blackmail of holding Israeli hostages. UK, France and Canada have condemned the aid blockade by Israel lasting for about eleven weeks. According to UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, Israeli action is a dark new phase in this conflict. When some MPs asked him to label prolonged Israeli military action as a genocide and to go further with the sanctions, David Lammy said: We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
On 7 October, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed Ghaza-Irael border and killed about 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages. This started the Israeli military invasion of Gaza in which thousands of Gaza people have been killed in the full glare of global media coverage. The suffering of children and women is unbearable to watch on our TV screens.
The issue before the civilised world is, if continued Israeli military action in Gaza is the right solution to the indiscriminate Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023. Are the root causes of the Irael-Palestine conflict being addressed and lasting peace solutions worked out? Apparently not.
Behind the statement by the Israeli Democrats Leader, Yair Golan quoted above, there is a realisation on the part of many moderate Jewish leaders that much more is at stake for the global Jewish community than Israel becoming a pariah state. The killing of civilians in Gaza shown on our TV screens daily, is horrific to watch and there is widespread public condemnation. There is massive increase in armed violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The UN recorded 1,800 attacks on Palestinian communities since 1 January 2024. It is unfortunate that antisemitism seems to be on the increase as a result.
With a population of 2.3 million in an area of 141 square miles, Gaza has been described as the largest open-air prison in the world. Gaza strip is 25 miles along the Mediterranean Sea with a width from 3.7 to 7.5 miles and surrounded mostly by Israel except for sharing 8 miles boundary with Egypt in the south.
When a powerful Israeli army attacks a small fenced area with 2.3 million civilians, it can hardly be called a war in the traditional sense. Allegations of war crimes and genocide by UK MPs would be justified, especially, if so ruled by the International Court.
For the Sikhs, the Gaza mass killing of ordinary civilians is a reminder of 3rd Ghalughara (genocide) which started 41 years ago in June 1984 and continued for 10 years. Admittedly, the underlying causes and the circumstances were different.
The massacre of the Sikhs of Delhi and other cities, in November 1984, removed any doubts about what lay ahead for the Sikhs, otherwise praised as the sword arm of India! More about 1984 next week.
Gurmukh Singh OBE
Principal Civil Servant retd (UK)
E-mail: sewauk2005@yahoo.co.uk
Sikh ideology articles: https://www.sikhmissionarysociety.org/