Qurat Ul Ain
The holy month of Ramadan has begun for the entire Muslim world. However, the misery of brethren Palestinians has shadowed the fervour and zeal in celebrating the auspiciousness and subsequent festivities of this holy month. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, since the insurgency by Hamas fighters on 7th October and the subsequent siege of Gaza by Israel, more than 30,000 people have been killed with approximately 70,000 injured. The United Nations has reported the risk of thousands of Palestinians being on the verge of famine while the World Food Programme estimated child malnutrition in Gaza to be higher than anywhere in the world.
A horrific incident earlier this month that reinforced the demand for aid was the brutal massacre of more than 100 people by Israeli forces. By opening fire on people gathered around food trucks to receive aid, the situation disrupted into total chaos leading many to be trampled and run over by trucks. With Israel imposing further restrictions on Muslim worshippers in Ramadan such as going to holy Muslim sites like Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the situation seems very dire. The past few months have witnessed Gaza’s religious sites bear the brunt of constant attacks with approximately 184 mosques and 3 churches demolished through bombardment.
One of the warehouses of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza was struck in between attempts to provide food for the captured Palestinians. A recent attack on an aid convoy in Kuwait Square killed around twenty people and wounded approximately one hundred and fifty-five. While the Gaza Health Ministry claimed Israeli forces as perpetrators in the attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) put the blame on armed Palestinians for opening fire on Gaza’s population seeking food aid. Whosoever remains the perpetrator, this incident is a tragic reality of how the innocent get butchered in their quest to survive.
These dooming realities are a tragic depiction of the facade created by global organisations and world powers to bring peace to the anarchic international order. It seems that the passing of more than five months since hell broke loose on Gaza’s population is not enough to bring any concrete resolution to this feud. America’s decision to veto the United Nation’s Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is just one of the many ways in which veto powers discard the very effectiveness of an international organization. America’s justification for the veto as an effort to prevent disruption of talks between Israel, Qatar, Egypt, and U.S seems to be flawed. An immediate ceasefire is what should have been a relief for Palestinians and for the entire Muslim world before the holy month of Ramadan began.
It is without any doubt that in this power-mongering, selfish international system, states are vying to bring relief to the oppressed. The Brazilian president explicitly criticised Israel for conducting ‘genocide’ against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and resonated war on Gaza to Adolf Hitler’s campaign to exterminate the Jewish population. Hailed by Spain and other countries criticizing America for its exploitative demeanour in employing the veto power, some of the eroded trust in the humanitarian spirit of states restores. Efforts of Arab countries like Algeria in pushing for a ceasefire resolution to be achieved signifies the Muslim countries’ defiance of their brethren.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call for ‘silencing the guns’ in Gaza in honour of Ramadan remains ineffective. The foremost question in the present dilemma is the inability of the world’s biggest intergovernmental organisation to execute a logical and probable decision given the befalling disaster on Gaza’s population, particularly during Ramadan. The misery of the hungry. war trodden citizens of Gaza are a pinnacle for deliberation on the effectiveness of multilateral organizations with their current policy frameworks.
The veto power in the United Nation’s structural framework has always been in debate. It is not the first time that it has been used to fulfill one state’s selfish motive in the face of other states pushing for a humanitarian solution to an existing crisis. It is at least 34 times the United States has used its veto power to block UN Security Council Resolutions that are not in convergence with Israel’s interests. The very audacity of big powers to use their veto in rejecting a desirable, fair and just solution for states mired in crisis is devastating.
In such situations, it seems highly necessary for the big multilateral organizations to reflect on structural hindrances to their effectiveness. Though international organizations are a conglomeration of states, a bunch of like-minded states together can bring forth structural changes in multilateral organizations. Hope for a better future with concrete humanitarian achievements could be in the way if a path is paved for removing obstacles in the implementation of just and logical decisions.
The writer holds a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from NUST and is currently associated with Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad. She can be reached at qurat4887@gmail.com.
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