LETTER | Multinational Islamic defence force as response to Israel

LETTER | Coinciding with the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba - as the live genocide of Palestinians is being broadcast on screens across the world - the United Nations wholesome inaction is dumbfounding. 

Whether you are watching the El Kurd family live stream from Sheikh Jarrah after being forcibly thrown from their homes by Israeli soldiers; or the picture of the Palestinian woman paralysed by the sight of her four dead children killed by a targeted Israeli strike; or the unarmed worshippers praying in Al Aqsa - the third holiest site - during the holiest month of Ramadhan, and being attacked with Israeli stun grenades and gassed into subjugation - make no mistake: this is genocide by the hands of apartheid Zionists Israel and every other nation that pledges its allegiance to the state of Israel.

Today, the colonisers of the past uplift and embolden the colonisers of the present. If you are silent, you are complicit.  

It is this very order that was immortalised when Britain issued a mass death warrant for Palestinians entitled "The Balfour Declaration", the direct ramifications of which have included the displacement of 1.5 million Palestinians.

The human rights violations are endless; the evidence enough to drown a court of law for decades to come. 

And yet, the verdict has already been delivered: we are deaf, dumb and blind to the slaughter of Palestinians because we fear our condemnation of the colonial state of Israel will be misconstrued for anti-Semitism. 

This is a deliberately orchestrated strategy, executed perfectly by a fascist-apartheid regime determined to silence the witnesses as it continues to usurp and colonise Palestinian land before our very eyes.

When the UN plays to the tune of the permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, France, Russia, UK and US - where does this leave the rest of us? 

To borrow a phrase from President Erdogan of Turkey: “The world is bigger than five.”

And so it is the rest of the world which must mobilise now against fascism, against military occupation, against apartheid and against settler colonialism. 

The Quran instructs us: “O you who believe, be upright for God and be bearers of witness with justice.” (Qur’an 5:8)

It is incumbent upon every Muslim nation: from Asia to Africa - and every human soul that exists between the seven continents under this one sky - let us unite to see justice done. 

When the Day of Judgement befalls us, and there is no place on this earth to cower away from what is to come, let us be certain and stand steadfast in the belief that we were on the right side of history.

As Muslims, it is incumbent upon us to maintain and uphold the basic tenants of our faith. 

Deafening silence amidst brutal injustice - a flagrant violation of international human rights law - is the very antithesis of Islam. 

Islam beseeches every Muslim nation to reflect upon this inherent duty placed upon us by our Lord and take immediate action. 

Our Prophet Muhammad taught us to help the oppressed and the oppressor. 

When he was questioned on what aiding the oppressor meant, he replied: “To prevent him from his oppression.”

Let us be resolutely clear: whether the injustice occurs on the streets of Minneapolis, USA, where George Floyd was murdered by police brutality emboldened with systemic anti-Blackness; or the streets of Colombia where protesters are being disappeared in their dozens and presumed murdered by police mobs, the collective brutality points to one thing and one thing alone: injustice left unchallenged festers until its poison spreads and infects every sinew.

We are living in unprecedented times: a global pandemic has gripped the entire world. People across the globe have been instructed to physically distance and to stay at home. 

What of the Palestinians of Gaza, then, living in an open-air prison - a densely populated strip of occupied land - where there is no possibility of physically distancing from other people, let alone the bombs raining down upon them? 

What of the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah, who cannot seek refuge by "staying at home", when they are being forcibly expelled from their homes by Zionist settlers, aided and abetted by Israeli forces?

The Covid-19 pandemic has infected millions across the globe and millions have died. What, then, of the millions of Palestinians displaced by the infection of Israeli settler colonialism? The hundreds of thousands killed by the virus of apartheid, fascism, terrorism, hatred and discrimination?

The only thing Israel is defending itself against is the right to occupy, to land grab, to ethnically cleanse and to colonize the Palestinian people. We must not stay silent.

We must demand action that works. Not another 73 years of one-sided close door diplomacy that only encourages Israel to continue to massacre the Palestinian people and tactically mass land grab.

Unprecedented challenges require an unprecedented solution. Hence:

• Calls for an immediate cessation of attacks on the state of Palestine and its people.
• Calls for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the occupied Palestinian territories as earmarked by the UN Resolution 242 on November 22, 1967 (Pre-1967 lines)
• To dispatch an international protection force to Palestine to protect the civilian population from further Israeli attacks.
• And encourages every nation to employ boycott divestment sanctions (BDS) on Israel.
• To form a Multinational Islamic Defence Force (MIDF) as long term strategy to secure peace and stability in the combustible region. 
• To realign new partners of peace as evidently the US and its one-sided allies have failed and failed miserably for the last 73 years.

We often hear world leaders pledge “never again” long after an atrocity has occurred. When the murder of a people has settled quietly in the pages of history books, we turn to them decades later: “if only we were there,” we say.

Today, you are here. The history books are being written now. The time to make your pledge of “never again” is at this very moment.

We must move to make the call for action happen: the world stage is watching. 

All Muslim nations must come together as one. 

All humanity must come together as one. 

Condemn this barbarity. Condemn this atrocity. Condemn apartheid Zionists Israel.