Bengaluru, October 28: It is another day of resistance against oppression and another day of devastation in Palestine and also another day of condemnation and show of solidarity elsewhere in the world.
A federation of various organisations and religious heads in Karnataka supporting Palestine has expressed its deep concern about the ongoing war in Palestine.
Advocate BT Venkatesh, representing REACH law forum, said at the outset this war should stop immediately. Humanitarian aid should be rushed to Gaza to save millions of lives which are at the verge of collapse. Thousands of injured persons are unlikely to survive without water, food, medicine and electricity, he said.
The political solution should be sorted out within the framework of international law, he opined. The state of Israel was crafted in Palestine by international players at the cost of local inhabitants, averred Venkatesh.
Dr. Belgami Mohammed Saad, president Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Karnataka described how Palestine is engulfed by the flames of a devastating war yet again. The relentless bombing of a narrow strip of land, home to about 2.3 million impoverished people, who had been already living in conditions like those of an open jail has resulted in unprecedented loss of life, limb and property, he added.
Comparing the situation with Afghanistan, he said in a week’s time Gaza was pounded with ammunition equivalent to what was dropped by NATO on Afghanistan in a whole year. As a result, nearly half of Gaza Strip has been reduced to rubble, over 7000 people, 70% of them children and women, have been martyred and nearly 16000 people have been rendered injured.
Dr Belgami further said that the root cause of this problem is the occupation of Palestine by Israel 75 years ago. The original inhabitants, Palestinian Arabs, who lived there for more than 2500 years have been continuously oppressed and evicted from their home land. Israel has practiced a policy of expansion, violent evictions, settlements, apartheid, racism and genocide ever since. The holy Shrine, Al-Quds, in Jerusalem has been defiled now and then. Israel aims to pursue its objective of greater Israel by annexing Palestinian territory and lands from adjacent countries in open contravention to international law, justice and UN Resolutions. Hence the real problem is occupation and not resistance.
There is a need for the international community, especially the Muslim countries, to come together and create sustained pressure to put an end to this injustice and oppression.
Welcoming the dispatch of relief consignment to the grief-stricken victims in Gaza, he urged the Indian government to play the role of mediator in finding a lasting solution to this issue, following our long term policy of supporting the Palestinian cause and upholding human rights.
Masood A Khadir of Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, Moulana Iftekhar Qasmi, President Jamiatul Ulama Karnataka, Moulana Maqsood Imran Rashadi, Imam City Jamia Masjid, and other dignitaries also spoke on the occasion.
