Gaza: Humanity's litmus test

"My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity on the situation in Gaza shames us all. It is almost like the behaviour of the military junta in Burma"(Desmond Tutu)

- By Dr. Ameer Ali

TODAY is the 635th day after Hamas fired those deadly rockets into Israel, killing 1,200 souls, according to Israeli official sources, before escaping with dozens of hostages as bargaining chips. The reason why Hamas did it is now public knowledge. After enduring the tyranny and brutality of Israel’s apartheid regime since 1967 peaceful resistance against settler colonialism proved ineffective, and the Palestinian expectation that the so-called world leaders

would liberate them from their oppressive existence by at least implementing the celebrated two-state solution was fast becoming a mirage. Hence that rocket attack, which was virtually justified and endorsed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

As Netanyahu and his military machine entered Gaza in response to that attack with a determination to wipe out that strip of land from the world map, Global North showered its blessings on Israel with weapons, funds and propaganda, and allowed the aggressor a free hand to finish off its genocide mission started in 1948. As the death toll and destruction in Gaza mounted the newly elected US President Donald Trump came out with his own solution to evacuate Gaza of its population, distribute them between Egypt and Jordan and rebuild that 365 s.km into another Riviera before handing it back to Israel sometime in the future.