By Lasantha Pethiyagoda –

Prof (Emeritus) Lasantha Pethiyagoda

I have been deeply distressed by Israel’s military assault on the population of Gaza. Many people of Sri Lankan origin had not bothered to study the history of the plight of Palestinians until the brave military operation by the Palestinian Resistance on 7th Oct 2023.

Consider the background of the Zionist apartheid state; one issue is the Right of Return. Within two years of the Zionist state calling itself Israel being proclaimed in the Knesset, ‘The Law of Return’ was established, a law which allows any Jew around the world to migrate to Israel and automatically become citizens, developing illegal settlements with impunity. In 1952, the Knesset passed the Citizenship Law, which effectively bars any Palestinian not living in Israel from returning and reclaiming their former property from the colonisers.

In the distribution of land resources, the glaring injustice is just as blatant. Over ninety per cent of the Palestinian community in Israel desperately hold on to less than three per cent of their land, mostly in their towns and villages, after waves of confiscation by the Zionist state which forcibly expropriated more than two-thirds of their land.

This confiscated land is kept in trust for illegal, armed Jewish settlers and for Jews around the globe, who might one day want to become citizens. Palestinians living in Israel cannot claim back land illegally taken from them, under the aegis of the Absentee Property Law of 1950. Most Sri Lankans are unaware of this background.

I see the murderous campaign of the Palestinian genocide as perhaps the gravest moral crisis of our time. The relentless blistering bombardments with 2000-pound bombs, the ever-mounting death toll of mostly women and children, the deadly and utterly inhumane blockade of vital essentials like food and water, the annihilation of innocent human lives, premeditated and using Oct 7th as a pretext grieve me terribly.

These events sear our moral consciousness like a white-hot iron and demand a desperate scream from the depths of the soul. Offering a glimmer of hope for the Global South, in its own discreet tenor, the International Court of Justice has issued such a cry of outrage, yet it seems to have fallen on deaf ears among the arbiters of the rules-based world order.

Given the regular instances of sheer inhumanity unfolding over just two decades, when the US-led alliances destroyed millions of poor lives in the middle eastern Global South, why should I highlight Gaza as the major moral calamity of our time? Let me list five reasons why.

Primarily, the sheer intensity of the assault on a cornered and defenceless population of women and children as a vastly disproportionate “response” to the aggression by Hamas.

Secondly, the severity and indiscriminate nature of the devastation, laying waste to wholly unconnected structures, hospitals, cemeteries and seats of learning falsely claiming they all harbour “terrorists”.

Thirdly, the speed at which this carnage is being conducted, as if some undisclosed timeline exists for its “completion”. The use of an ever-changing rationale, with claims such as enemy use of human shields or embedding among civilians, put forward at the aggressor’s convenience.

Fourthly, thanks to modern technology and various social media platforms, the genocide comes live to our lounge rooms or mobile devices unlike during the Nazi holocaust and other war crimes like Tutsi in Rwanda or Rohingya in Myanmar the genocide in Gaza unfolds live on our television and computer screens, right before our eyes, although grievous atrocities on Gaza especially since 2006 escaped the world’s attention with a dedicated mainstream Western media covering up.

Fifthly, the proportion of non-combatants deliberately targeted is unprecedented in the history of war. The statistics representing deaths, maiming with amputations, grievous injuries, and destruction include doctors, medical staff, journalists, and university teachers singled out and struck down bear witness to the intent despite attempts at obfuscation.

All areas of the tiny Gaza strip have become a death camp where no one is safe anywhere. Whole families are being liquidated in entire neighbourhoods with bunker-buster bombs that collapse and crush entire blocks, leaving injured women and children, the elderly, to die horrible long-drawn deaths under the rubble. Orphans, unlucky to escape and witness the trauma firsthand, are scarred for their entire life if they somehow survive.

Starvation and epidemics due to lack of sanitation, lack of nutrition are some of the worst crimes against humanity. These are perpetrated with absolute impunity. One brave active American air force officer in uniform recently set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy screaming “Free Palestine” until overcome by the flames.

Western country leaders collectively encourage the genocide and directly assist by supplying arms to Israel and denying aid to the UN works and refugee agency with a staff of thousands who had helped feed and treat refugees in the region. The beholden Arab leaders in the region, bribed well with American money, ignore the cries of protest from their people. The circling vultures are sensing that easy prey will soon abound.

The images of a medieval apocalypse jump out from our television screens begging us for mercy. We see children with amputated limbs, their bodies torn and broken; babies abandoned in powerless incubators long dead and decaying; apartment buildings, schools and universities collapsing like dominoes; refugees crammed into rat and cockroach infested make-shift camps, children crying out for water and food; the dying and screaming, together with corpses bulldozed into mass graves; captives blindfolded and stripped naked, paraded like cattle through desolate streets, to an unknowable fate.

Most of us find these realities too difficult to absorb, and turn away, to indulge in our normal activities like chatting with friends, going out for a meal with former school-mates, joining a family gathering, going to a cultural event instead. Most younger people focus on working and providing for their families in relative comfort and security.

However, our humanity is seriously questioned. Once we bear witness to these horrific crimes, we should feel that a heavy moral responsibility has fallen on our shoulders, a burden of conscience we cannot shrug away claiming these atrocities don’t concern us. The burden is painful, but also sobering, in reminding us of our capacity for empathy.

Another way in which the crisis in Gaza bears moral weight relates specifically to citizens of the United States. It is complicit in Israel’s crimes. It blatantly funds Israel’s military, supplying it with the most advanced weaponry available. It provides Israel diplomatic cover at the UN security council through use of a wholly unfair veto. It gives Israel moral cover by echoing the messages of its propaganda machine in the media, while tarring those who criticize its actions.

This unwavering loyalty to a pariah nation that consistently flouts international law overturns the moral prism through which most people view the global order. Now, as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya before, the masks come off, exposing the hypocrisy of the major Western powers hidden behind their humbug of polished exteriors.

There is simply no excuse for sitting around speechless on the sidelines. We cannot let silence reign as the final word on repulsively perverted injustice.

Everyone with a conscience must actively express their solidarity with the besieged Palestinians who cannot speak for themselves. We must be in solidarity with any and every group or country that supports the Palestinian cause of resistance by lending our support in numerous ways.