The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on January 26 ordered Israel to stop acts of genocide against Palestinians and to take more steps to help the hapless, terrorized civilians of Gaza Strip. But it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire, which was requested by South Africa. The ruling dashed the hopes of the billions of peace-loving people who had thought the court would put the brakes on the genocide in Gaza. Yet it is a victory for the Palestinians who have been passing through the worst times. The Israeli atrocities have claimed more than 26,000 lives, a majority of which comprise children and women. This order is a setback to the bloodshed perpetrated by the terrorist state of Israel. The court’s interim order supports the claim of the victims that Israel is guilty of violating the basic human rights of Palestinians.
It is unfortunate that in spite of the court’s ruling, countries like the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. are still backing the terrorist regime of Israel. It shows their complicity in the genocide. Israeli PM Netanyahu rejected the ruling of ICJ as “outrageous” and shamelessly asserted that Israel has the right to defend itself against attack on it. The world knows it full well, even if some heads of states don’t accept it, that under the pretext of fighting with Hamas, Israel is committing a genocide of the Palestinians.
In spite of the ICJ verdict, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza Strip is continuing. Even the Israeli media says that Israel cannot hide behind the claim that it is only defending itself. It is not self-defense but open genocide. Now it is increasingly being felt and most of the journalists feel that Israel can no longer ignore the pressure of world opinion. Some experts of international law have opined that again US Security Council may be approached and now after the ICJ verdict it would be difficult for the US and other veto-power holding members to veto the resolution.
Another painful aspect of the genocidal conflict is the negative role of the Muslim countries. The majority of the Ummah sees that the Muslim countries, 57 in number, have not done enough to intervene and stop the genocide and the total destruction of Gaza. The Organization of Muslim Cooperation (OIC) represents 200 crore Muslims of the world. It is its bounden duty to use its full force to stop the genocide and protect the lives, dignity and land of Palestinians. The Muslim countries must unite and join hands with the leaders of the civilized world for an amicable settlement of this pestering problem. This task has become easier because of the collective pressure built by the conscientious people of the world in scores of countries who are continuously protesting the persecution, atrocities and unending human rights violations by the Zionist regime.
The USA, UK and other leading western powers should either not talk about human rights and democracy or rise to the occasion and pressurize Israel to see reason and stop its inhuman policies against the Palestinians.
Is it not the tragedy of worst kind that, in spite of all our claims of being the paragons of civilized humanity we could not stop war, conflict, and arms race? The amount of more than $1000 billion which is wasted on arms and wars can be diverted to promote peace and improve the standard of life of the people of the world.