International Conference in Support of Palestinians

A two day conference in support of Palestinian struggle for freedom under the title “Palestine –the Symbol of Resistance; Gaza the Victim of Crime” was held in Tehran on 4 and 5 of March this year.

The conference attended by more than 80 delegates comprising of politicians, intellectuals, human rights activists,journalists and numerous others from all corners of the world was aimed at seeking practical means to free the Palestinians from the vicious and brutal Zionist Jewish occupation forces.

Inaugurating the conference the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei expressed hope that patience and resistance of the Palestinian people combined with all-out aids and support of the Muslim world will end the occupation of Palestine. Meanwhile Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted that legal action by Muslim states to bring Israel’s top political and military leaders to trial would bound to yield positive results.

Number of research papers on how to deal with different aspects of this burning issue affecting the entire Muslims world were discussed during the conference and here is the paper on the Duties and Responsibilities of Muslim Countries in supporting Palestinians “presented by journalist Latheef Farook;

Muslims all over the world are duty bound; in fact, it is even their religious obligation, to support the Palestinians in their just struggle for freedom.

To begin with, they have been fighting for their legitimate rights, against a ruthless and heartless enemy to live in peace in their own homes and lands as peaceful citizens. Their struggle is also to restore the rights and dignity of the Muslims because it includes the liberation of Jerusalem and Masjid Al Aqsa-Islam’s first Qibla and the place from where our beloved Prophet Muhammed, Peace Be Upon him, went on Mihraj- the historic night journey

Yet Jerusalem has been under Zionist occupation for 41 years and around 1.4 billion Muslims need to get their permission to visit Jerusalem and Masjid Al Aqsa. This is the ridiculous plight of the Muslim world. During an interview with me ten years ago Sheikh Ekrima Said Sabri, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, made a passionate plea for the Muslims to save Jerusalem as it exposed Makka and Madina too to the designs of the Zionists. However, this wake up call was ignored.

I used the word Zionist Jews because there are hundreds of thousands of righteous Jews who do not subscribe to the destructive Zionist ideology that virtually turned the entire Middle East into an endless battleground with warmongers and arms dealers looting the region and making life miserable for millions.

Moreover, what is this State of Israel?

Around the year 1905, Palestine, now called Israel, was a province of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire and more than 96 percent of the population there was Arabs .The remaining four percent was Jews .All of them lived in peace and harmony.

It was such a peaceful place that one never heard a bad word leave alone people talking loud. Violence appeared there with all its fury with the arrival of Zionist Jews. With the connivance of the British Mandatory Authority in Palestine, the armed Zionist Jewish terrorists indulged in mass scale manslaughter, drove out Palestinians, occupied their homes and lands and set up a Jewish racist state.

The state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948. Within minutes came the recognition from the White House followed by Moscow. Thus, Palestine was wiped out the map of the world- an unprecedented Judeo-Christian crime on Muslims.

Western colonial powers led by Britain and followed by the United States, France and the Soviet Union were responsible for planting this alien Jewish entity in the heart of the Muslim world, in violation of every known norm ,value and principle they preach to the world.

Unarmed Palestinians ended up in refugee camps in neighboring countries where they have been languishing in appalling conditions .They still have the keys to their houses and the title deeds to their lands. They were not allowed to live in peace even in the refugee camps where they were hunted and killed by the Zionists up to date.

Since then Israel has served as the outpost of the Western colonial powers. In 1955, Israel joined Britain and France to invade Egypt to take back the Suez Canal nationalized by Egypt.

In June 1967 Israel attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan and captured Sinai, Gaza strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. In 1982, Menachem Begin, terrorist turned Nobel laureate, invaded Lebanon and killed nearly 18,000, mostly Palestinians. His defence Minister Ariel Sharon supervised the slaughter of more than 2200 Palestinian men, women, children and the aged at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. These killings continue unabated.

In a spotless democratic election, held under the supervision of former US President Jimmy Carter in January 2006, Hamas was elected with an overwhelming majority. However, for Israel and its Western collaborators Hamas who believe in peace with dignity were terrorists. Israel, United States and its European partners wanted Palestinians stooges and collaborators who would carry out their instructions.

Thus to crush Hamas Israel, United States and Europe stopped all donations and cut off the flow of all money to starve Palestinian into submission. Some regimes in the region too joined this blockade knowing very well the misery they were causing to Palestinians. However, Hamas controlled Palestinian Authority needed this money to keep body and soul together.

In June 2006 Israel, under the pretext of responding to the alleged kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, bombed and destroyed roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, water and electricity plants, killing 275 Palestinians including 46 children in the process.

Palestinians in Gaza remained virtual prisoners in their own homes cut off from air, sea and land routes and deprived of everything other than the air they breathe which the Israelis cannot block. This is grave war crime and German leaders were sentenced to death for lesser crimes.

This illustrates the classic example of man’s inhumanity to man.

These Palestinians are human beings too .Their sufferings could have been eased if Egypt opened its border. However, unfortunately for the Palestinians, pleasing the United States and the Zionist was more important to Egypt than helping Palestinians.
Their sufferings and privation from June 2007 continued for 20 long months .Though the cries of starving Palestinians in Gaza were loud enough to reach the sky and melt even rocks, yet they failed to touch the hearts of the rulers in the region some of them floating in wealth.

However, while Muslims turned a blind eye it was the Christians from the West who challenged Israel when they brought the much-needed food, medicine and other supplies to the Palestinians.

Though the milk of human kindness and often spoken brotherhood dried up in the Muslim world, yet there was hope in humanity as people like former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, also former United Nations High commissioner for Human Rights urged the world to ease the blockade that forced Palestinian people in Gaza to search for grass for food to survive.

It was on these starving Palestinians that Israel unleashed its carnage with all its fury and venom using United States supplied latest of bunker buster missiles, F16 bombers, banned white phosphorous and other latest of destructive weapons. Did the hearts of leaders in the West and even in the Middle East melt on seeing the television footage of the slaughter of innocent men, women, children and the aged?

Today it is no more an Arab-Israeli conflict .It has become Palestinian-Israeli conflict as the regimes in the region abandoned the Palestinians and, according to reports, even collaborated and facilitated their genocide.

The entire Christian West threw its weight behind the Zionists.

In supporting the Zionist crimes the leaders in the West shed all cherished values such as democracy, individual freedom, human rights , human kindness and even human feelings which they preach to the world .In their drive to please their Jewish masters who rule the West and, thereby rule the world, with their brutal control over the Western political, military, economic, social establishments and media and entertainment industries, these Western leaders even set aside their self respect and self conscious. They even belatedly sacrifice their own country’s interests to serve the Zionists.

The Arab masses who believe in self-respect, dignity and rights, expressed their solidarity with the Palestinians in one voice. They came out in their hundreds of thousands, in defiance of their regimes, to vehemently condemn the Israeli barbarity. However, most of these regimes were more worried about their own seats of power than defending the Palestinians rights.

Meanwhile the West blamed Hamas and justified the genocide in one voice. For example; United States, Britain, European Union and even some Arab countries blamed Hamas for the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.

There are 22 Arab countries with a population of around 300 million, unlimited economic and military power with more than $ 450 billion worth of weapons bought from the West .On the other hand there are around 1.4 billion Muslims.

Yet when the Zionist Jews started to slaughter the Palestinians, no one lifted a finger to save them. Instead, President Hosni Mubarak declared, “Egypt will keep its border crossings with Gaza closed until democratically elected Hamas was removed and Mahmud Abbas, enthroned in power, against the wish of Palestinian people. He told a delegation of European foreign ministers that Hamas must not be allowed to win its conflict with the Israel.

Egypt’s role was such that disgraced President George Bush thanked him and, according to reports, Saudi King Abdulla assured President George Bush during a telephone conversation that he would not ask Israel to stop bombing Palestinians in Gaza.

Under the circumstances the Palestinians in Gaza cannot pin any hope on the united Nations which becomes ineffective when it comes to dealing with Zionist crimes though it becomes very effective in implementing destructive Judeo-Christian designs on Muslim countries.

There was a time the Palestinian could turn to third world forums such as Non aligned Movement, which dominated the UN General Assembly where they once passed a resolution describing Zionism as Racism. However with the collapse of former Soviet Union the entire international political scene changed and, for example, India, once in the forefront in supporting the Palestinians, has now formed the anti Muslim Washington , Tel Aviv, New Delhi axis shaping the destiny of the region from Mediterranean to South Asia.

What is common to the three is their hostility towards Muslims. Washington is influenced by Evangelical Christians and Jewish Lobbies, India is controlled by violent anti Muslim RSS Hindutva forces and the Zionist hostility towards Muslims has been inherent in their system

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West replaced communism with Islam and Muslims to demonise and focus the world attention. They engineered crisis after crisis killing the Muslims all over.This dangerous campaign came into open with all its ferocity in the aftermath of the 9/11 events in New York and the Pentagon when President George Bush unleashed a global wave of terror and horror on Muslims under the guise of fighting a so called war on terrorism branding every Muslim with a beard and ever Muslim woman with a head cover a terrorist

Other countries such as Russia, India and even China joined this campaign as it suited their own agendas. Muslim countries were blackmailed to get in line or face the consequences. Regimes in many Muslim countries have become active collaborators. This is the crucial problem facing the Muslims today.
One should not forget that Israel has its own plan to set up a greater Israel from Tigris to Nile. With the invasion of Iraq both George Bush and Tony Blair assisted the Zionists to reach Tigris .Perhaps it is a matter of time before they reach the Nile too. So worse, is yet to come?

Muslim countries are being attacked and bombed with impunity. Muslims are tortured and killed their religion and prophet mocked. Muslims are among the poorest people in the world and their countries the least developed despite some Muslim countries having enormous wealth and riches.

During the past one and a half decades, more than 12 million Muslims were driven to refugee camps where they suffer in abject poverty. Millions of Muslims were killed. Muslim men and women carrying their belongings and walking with their loved ones in search of refugee camps have become a familiar sight the world over from Chechenya, Bosnia, Kosovo to Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and the list continues. Now it appears Pakistan has become their next target.
This destructive campaign strikes at the very root of political, military, economic, financial, social, religious and even cultural life of Muslims. It has kindled hatred towards Muslims all over .

It appears Muslims have no one to turn to. Western media, an integral part of the Western war machine, is hostile to Muslims. Regimes in many Muslim countries are willing collaborators. The situation is so frightening for Muslims that Wolfram Richter, the Economic Professor of the University of Dortmund of West Germany, expressed his fears that “the next holocaust would be against Muslims”.

Already the regimes in many Muslim countries have taken their population to the brink of graveyards. Under the circumstances, unless the Muslim population begins to take part in the decision making process it is matter of time before rivers of Muslim blood flow all over.

It was in this context that the Muslims need to view the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the need for them to support the Palestinians without any reservation.