Let's Chant:
Free, Free Palestine
By Kourosh Ziabari
Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, June 21, 2010
Press TV - Seeing the footage dispatched
from London to TV stations around the world following
the massacre of peace activists onboard the Freedom
Flotilla embarrassed me for several reasons.
First and foremost, as an Iranian Muslim who
ideologically supports and upholds his brothers in
religion during crucial times, I found myself
incomprehensibly ineffectual as I saw British citizens
storming onto the streets of London, holding the flags
of Turkey and Palestine, chanting "Free, Free
Palestine".
Although the vicious regime of
Israel has been successful in uniting Muslim and
non-Muslim nations around the world in support of the
cause of the suffering people of Palestine, the
sentiments that emanated from the British citizens
offered a different, an unprecedented feeling this time.
In the past, they would demonstrate to condemn
the brutalities of Tel Aviv. It was a perceptive
sympathy that propelled them to the streets to chant for
the freedom of Palestine. This time was different,
however. This time the insight came together with a
patriotic resentment against those who had mistreated
their fellow citizens.
The British protestors
were touching the pain that the Palestinian people have
suffered over the past 60 years. 42 British citizens
were among the 480 people whom the Zionist regime had
arrested. This time, the British citizens saw how Israel
does not draw a distinction between Palestinian and
non-Palestinian; to the racist leaders of Israel and
their agents, a human being does not have any value, so
imprisoning, torturing, killing or massacring people
from different nationalities, races and religions is
viewed as normal. Since September 2000, 1,441
Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces.
Children do not pose a threat to the national security
of Israel, so these killings emanate from the essential
nature of Israel - one of atrocity and butchery.
Interestingly, Israel's ambassador to the United States,
Michael Oren, lauded his country's massacre of the
international peace activists, likening it to "America's
fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War". In
an interview with Fox News, he called this mass killing
by the Israel Defense Forces "perfectly legal, perfectly
humane and very responsible".
The intensified
cruelty and violence of the past years has cost the
Israeli regime its diplomatic relations with five
countries, namely Qatar, Mauritania, Venezuela, Bolivia
and Nicaragua. Once again, Israel has exhibited its
inhumanity and parades before the eyes of the
international community how it ignores law and globally
recognized regulations.
Aside from breaching
the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel violated Article 3
of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts
against the Safety of Maritime Navigation that was
adopted on March 10, 1988 in Rome. This article
obligates measures that insure the safety of marine
passengers. According to this Convention, any person or
entity that intentionally and unlawfully resorts to
violent action against the passengers of any type of
vessel is considered criminal.
Let's get back
to my own sentiments. I found myself slack-jawed as I
saw the people who had come to chant their
dissatisfaction with the ongoing aggression of Israel.
They did not have anything to do with the nation of
Palestine religiously or nationalistically. They came
from different continents, different races, different
religions and spoke different languages, but their
message was strong and that was what made them
impressive and inspiring.
They chanted that
they don't want to tolerate the incessant bloodshed of
Israel anymore. They don't want to hear of the killing,
kidnapping, torturing and bombing that Israel does every
day. They don't want Israel to be singled out as the
state that is never held accountable for what it does or
what it intends to do. They don't want the arbitrary
approach of the superpowers toward Israel to continue.
They don't want the United Nations or other
international organizations to sit back and watch
apathetically while Israel tortures and murders.
The message of the citizens who have poured into the
streets around the world, like the tens of millions of
them who had chanted and rallied for the freedom of Gaza
in the early days of 2009, is clear and unambiguous.
They don't want Israel to be treated as if it has
tumbled to the Levant from another planet. They don't
want Israel to be exempt from international law or
regulation.
Looking back at the calamitous days
of the 1982 Lebanon War in which 17,852 Lebanese were
unjustifiably killed by Israeli forces, you might
remember that Israel finally withdrew after the United
Nations Security Council issued six consecutive
resolutions, demanding that Tel Aviv pull its troops out
of Lebanon. Israel has a strange take on the language of
logic and ration. It continually violates Resolution 487
which calls on it to put its nuclear facilities under
comprehensive IAEA safeguards. This resolution was
adopted 29 years ago, but Israel has yet to comply.
What we witnessed in the Freedom Flotilla carnage
was not something totally unexpected. The Israeli
regime, since its establishment, has engaged in killing,
denials of any wrongdoing, and then killing again. The
peace activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla came from 44
countries; the least thing these countries can do is to
sever ties with the Israeli regime, a criminal entity
that does not understand the language of peace. However,
the man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009
simply offered his "deep condolences" and called for a
"credible, impartial and transparent investigation" into
the issue. It seems that news is possibly being
obstructed en route to Mr. Obama. Perhaps he is waiting
for an investigative group to tell him what has
happened.
Let Mr. Obama find a pretext which he
thinks will exempt him from condemning the felony of
Israel. We are the citizens of the world who all chant
together:
"Free, Free Palestine!"
