Israel, shall we or shall we not

On the 2nd of September, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri met his counterpart from Israel Mr. Shalvin Shalom in Turkey. The meeting has brought into discussion an issue attached with which are centuries of religious sentiments and emotions. Sentiments which are deeply rooted in the hearts of the Muslims the world over. Sentiments which recognize no border no boundary or any artificial division. Sentiments whose roots lie some 1400 years back in the deserts of Arab. Sentiments which have never died down nor lost their intensity. When Mr. Kasuri shook hands with the Jewish Foreign Minister he put aside the emotions of some 1.5 billion Muslims across the globe. He put behind him 1400 years of history with just one movement of his hands. He put a foot on the throats of millions of Palestinians while embracing his counterpart from Israel. He disregarded more then 5 million martyrs who have fell victim to the brutalities of a country whose foreign Minister’s hand he shook with utmost pleasure. He demolished the hopes of millions of Palestinians who danced with joy in the streets of Ramallah and Al-Quds shouting the slogans of Takbeer on the 28 th of May 1997, tears of hope and joy glistening in their eyes. Mr.Kasuri may have his reasons to smile after that meeting but he snatched the smiles from the faces of billions of Muslims across the globe.

Looking at the reasons which the Government so vehemently presents before the people in order to support her unjustifiable foreign policy U-turn one would see nothing but the same old rhetoric of the so called "National Interest" and the changing global politics. It is the same national interest which had to be protected after 9/11 when America was fully facilitated to carry out it’s genocide against the hapless Afghans. It was the same national interest which was again secured when the hero of the Muslim Ummah Dr.A.Q.Khan was humiliated before the whole world. It was again the same national interest which needed to be safeguarded when the people of Wana were bombed and their homes destroyed to ensure the safety of the American troops on the other side of the border. It was the same national interest which needed protection when the Kashmir cause was abandoned and the Jihadi groups were banned. Today the very same national interest has again come to the forefront when it comes to establishing relations with Israel and recognizing her.

Another reason presented by our leadership for this outrageous U-turn is the acceptance of Israel by some other Muslim countries. By quoting the examples of Egypt, Jordan and others they try to provide justification. Ironically all these countries are being ruled by rulers who have lost both their credibility and support amongst the masses. They have crushed all forms of political debate and opposition with an iron fist. Their policies are a far cry from the aspirations and wishes of their own people.

During the recent past the leadership of Pakistan has been very selective in choosing its friends and allies. America, India and now Israel. All these have one small insignificant thing in common. They have in between them killed over a million Muslims and continue to occupy their lands. America, having killed more then a hundred thousand innocent civilians in Iraq and thousands in Afghanistan. Israel has killed more then half million Palestinians and thousands of Lebanese and Arabs. India which has killed up till now more then 80,000 Muslims in Kashmir. . If this continues to be the criteria for formulating the foreign policy one wonders who might be next in the list. Perhaps the Russians and the Serbs. Like the above mentioned three these two are not behind in the list having committed the unimaginable atrocities in Chechnya and Bosnia

Israel, a state which illegally occupies Muslim land is an oppressor and has committed the most serious human right violations. Ever since the day the Israeli state was forcefully established in the midst of the Muslim world there has not been a single day of peace. The people of Palestine in Particular have suffered badly, economically, politically and physically. Ever since the Arab-Israel war of 1967 the genocide has intensified.

A recent report by World Bank on the living conditions in Gaza gives a fair idea of the Palestinian economy. It mentions that 47 per cent of the population now lives below the poverty line and a quarter of the workforce remains unemployed. More than 60,000 residents –” 16 per cent of the population –” cannot even afford the basic necessities for subsistence. The Israeli closures and checkpoints have resulted in massive reduction in the number of Palestinians working in Israel from 120,000 in September 2000 beginning of the intifada II to less than 1,000 now. Currently, the GDP is 23 per cent down on 1999 figures. The draconian restrictions on movements and closures have already led to a massive fall in the living standard in Gaza, where per capita income of a Palestinian averages $700 as against $16,000 of an Israeli citizen.

Such treachery by the so called leaders of the Ummah is a far cry from our illustrious past when in the year 1901 A.D , a delegation of the Jews came to Istanbul and offered Sultan Abdul Hammed , the Muslim Caliph to pay funds in the Khilafah state budget in return for allowing them a foothold in Palestine .The reply they got from a man in charge of a state on the brink of bankruptcy was "I cannot concede one inch of the land of Palestine…It is not my own property…It is rather the property of the Islamic Ummah. My people have struggled for the sake of this land and watered it with their blood…Let the Jews keep their millions…But if the Khilafah state was divided one day, then they can take Palestine for no price…However, while I am still alive, it would be easier for me to let the scissors work in my body than to see Palestine torn from the Khilafah state". Indeed the Ummah yearns for those days to return when her problems were not buried in resolutions and false promises but solved with the utmost urgency. Such is the state of affairs of the Muslim Ummah that she must seek to re-establish the Islamic Khilafah in order to put an end to the miseries she is being forced to go through.