Flotilla

There was a time when the Palestinian cause wasn’t associated with religion. PLO was a secular organization which fought for the Palestinian cause regardless of religion. This may be the reason why at one time PLO enjoyed more popularity and commanded more respect in the world than Islamist organizations such as Hamas or Hizbollah do today. I feel that the image of Palestinian struggle has been destroyed by the religious organizations and their extreme views. It has come to the point that people across the world have come to associate the Palestinian struggle with religious extremism and this had also resulted in the marginalization of the community in the world. The truth however is that the struggle is about justice and freedom from oppression.

The recent incident involving the aid flotilla has been a huge victory for the Palestinian cause. One particularly interesting aspect of this incident was the fact that activists on the flotilla belonged to many different nations and did not represent any particular religion. They all shared a common goal which was to deliver aid to the people of Gaza who have been suffering for years due to a cruel blockade imposed by the state of Israel. This incident has finally brought the issue of the Gaza blockade back to the forefront and people are beginning to take notice of the inhumanity being imposed upon the Palestinians. Unfortunately, some activists had to die at the hands of the IDF soldiers but they did what many others haven’t been able to do for years. They showed the world how Israel and the IDF treats people who oppose their practises of injustice and apartheid in any way. If Edward Said or Eqbal Ahmed were alive today, they would have been proud.

The Israeli government doesn’t seem to know how to handle this incident and their usual arrogant responses and blatant propaganda attempts have only managed to infuriate even more people. It seems that only people in Israel and the extreme right still has blind faith in the actions of the IDF while the rest of the world except for the United States has strongly condemned the actions. The opinion and letters sections of the world’s newspapers are full of disapproval and denouncement. I feel that it’s quite unfortunate that the United States did not take this opportunity to recognize and condemn this flagrant violation of law and justice, which could have been used to bridge the gap between the US and Muslim communities and extend a hand of friendship. It seems that Obama’s words regarding new beginnings with the Muslim world were merely hollow promises. In the United States the status quo continues but it seems that change is in the air in the rest of the world though the future will judge and hold us responsible for letting injustice continue for so long.