Photo courtesy of HRW
Today is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
“Global Palestine” has brought together once again numerous segments of humanity in different parts of the world to demonstrate their unflinching support for the people of Palestine whose only crime against “Global Israel” is their resolve to free themselves from settler colonialism. The 44,000 killed so far with another nearly 104,000 wounded of whom a large number are women, children, the aged and the sick, the millions who had been made homeless in both Gaza and Lebanon and above all the total desolation and pulverization of Gaza is testimony to the genocidal intentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) so that at least northern Gaza would be cleansed of Arabs and annexed with Eretz Israel.
What is even more shocking in this genocide and aggression is the support Netanyahu and his IDF are receiving from US and its Western allies by way of weapons, finance and strategic advice. It is that support that encouraged Netanyahu to ignore and reject ICC’s arrest warrants on him and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
However, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People must be a day of solidarity not only with Palestinians but also with all victims who suffer injustice under a world order that works in the interest of the few at the expense of many. The left leaning NPP government that came to power by championing the cause for system change should give voice to a similar cause internationally. The international system needs fundamental restructuring. The Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence from an oppressive and apartheid Israeli occupation supported by US and its Western allies is ample testimony to a world order that operates mainly to the benefit of the rich and powerful.
After the Second World War, which came to an end after US killed 400,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with its atom bombs, and when humanity at last was dreaming of enjoying the serenity of peace, the merchants of death were working overnight to polish their deadly research on manufacturing even more lethal weapons to make money. The fact that US emerged as the new imperial master while almost the entire Europe including the UK remained dislocated if not destroyed by the war, enabled the death merchants to build their entrepreneurial empire with US as its epicentre. The US military-industrial complex was slowly and steadily started exerting its control over the country’s media industry, research centres, universities, banks and finance companies and other commanding heights of US economy. That military-industrial complex has now become the US imperium.
For this imperium to survive and prosper killing fields in any part of the world outside US are a necessity. The Cold War provided the golden opportunity to turn the developing world of Asia, Africa and Latin America into theatres of hot war. These theatres in turn produced opportunities for scientists in rich countries funded by the US military industrial complex to invent new weapons and test the effectiveness of those weapons outside US. Those weapons not only killed and wounded people but also poisoned the environment. Today’s climate crisis is clearly a byproduct of an industrial culture developed by a technology which has turned lethal to the welfare of humanity. When the people in rich countries became aware of this danger and demanded cleaner technology, poor countries naturally became the dumping ground for the old version. Companies invested in polluting technology shifted their theatres of operation to developing nations. In 1991, Lawrence Summers, the chief economist of World Bank, openly advocated the export of polluting technology to the developing world where according to him life was cheap, population too many and therefore expendable. Environmental protection regulations in poor countries were deliberately kept weak by foreign advisors so that multinationals could use polluting technology legally.
The existing world order is an order of injustice and the war in Palestine is stage managed by US and its allies to protect that order. Doesn’t this call for systemic change?
With the end of the Cold War the idea of globalisation or borderless world and the advocacy of open economies and free trade have created more economic and social disparities than before. With the Trump administration taking over the US these disparities are set to widen and Palestine with more bloodshed and carnage would pass into the hands of Zionist Israel. As Antonio Gramsci the Italian philosopher said, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time for monsters”. This is why the NPP government must transform the Palestine Day from its narrow and singular focus on the war in Middle East and give it a broader focus that demands systemic change in the world arena.