Human
Rights Day Celebration in Gaza
by Abukar
Arman
"Most of the world remains misinformed or woefully
ignorant about the miserable condition in which the Palestinian people."
It was
December 10, 1948 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR). Today this document is the most widely translated and
perhaps the most referenced.
And as the
international community and media around the world eagerly await the
celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), some
communities still remain under the boots of domination and oppression. And no
modern community has suffered more than the people of Palestine. This suffering
has gotten worse since the Palestinian people exercised their democratic rights
and overwhelmingly elected Hamas - an entity that both Israel and the U.S.
consider a terrorist organization - as its legitimate representative in
January, 2006.
UDHR is a powerful fusion of religious and secular
principles whose aim is to uphold the existential values that sustain humanity.
Its profound importance is based on its recognition of the fundamental rights
of all human beings to breathe life in peace and through liberty, to have equal
access to justice, and to be able to live in dignity. However, UDHR is
not without shortcoming. The document is simply a declaration, not an
international treaty that is binding. And this perhaps explains the
inconsistency in its application and why the state of Israel could continue its
inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people with impunity.
"The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in
Gaza."
Ironically,
several months ago, the state of Israel also celebrated its sixtieth
anniversary. Some welcomed this historic occasion as a celebration of a triumph
for justice while others bemoaned it as a glorified failure of the state of
Israel to confront its bloody past and oppressive present!
In his
book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe
documents horrific accounts that began with systematic extermination of
villagers that continue today mainly by way of inhumane treatment, uprooting of
communities for land grab, and economic strangulation. And as a result of a
sustained media blackout, most of the world remains misinformed or woefully
ignorant about the miserable condition in which the Palestinian people,
especially in Gaza , live.
Some
global leaders and Nobel Peace Prize laureates such as former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter, former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu have, in one way or another, condemned Israel 's treatment of the
Palestinian people.
"The world
is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half
human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world.
An entire population is being brutally punished," wrote Carter in an article
published by the Guardian newspaper. The world "must not stand idle while innocent people are treated cruelly,"
said Carter. "It is time for strong voices in Europe, the US, Israel and
elsewhere to speak out and condemn the human rights tragedy that has befallen
the Palestinian people," he added.
Carter was accused of anti-Semitism
for comparing the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people to that of the
old Apartheid system of South Africa in his book Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid. However, he was neither the first nor the last high profile
leader to make that comparison.
"Tutu described what he witnessed as a "gross violation
of human rights" that is contrary to the teachings of Holy Scripture."
Buried through the pages of
history are the words of Mandela when he, On December 4, 1997, in a speech
delivered during the commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity
with the Palestinian People, said "... the UN took a strong stand against
apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which
helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our
freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."
Moreover, Tutu, as a special UN envoy that led a
fact-finding mission to Gaza last May, described what he witnessed as a "gross
violation of human rights" that is contrary to the teachings of Holy Scripture.
Depicting the daunting impact of the economic blockade, he said the Gaza strip
was "forlorn, deserted, desolate and eerie place." Furthermore, he
talked about the children whose conditions are seldom covered in the evening
news: "We were struck particularly by the absence of the sounds of
children shrieking and playing."
While they are far from making an immediate impact that
would free the Palestinian people from its current misery, these vocal leaders
have triggered a global, conscience-based movement that would continue the
arduous struggle till Israel profoundly changes its treatment of the
Palestinian people.
The latest to join these champions of conscience is
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the current president of the United Nations General
Assembly.
"The failure to establish a Palestinian state made
"a mockery of the United Nations."
Like those before him, he too compared Israel 's treatment
of the Palestinian people to "the apartheid of an earlier era." And
like those before him, he too was accused of being an "Israel-hater" and being
driven by anti-Semitic motives.
Going public with what no UN high official has ever
vocalized, and others would only whisper, d'Escoto addressed the de facto
double standard that exists and how the world accepted an endless peace process
that leads to nowhere. The failure to establish a Palestinian state made
"a mockery of the United Nations and greatly hurts its image and
prestige," he said.
Recognizing the Israeli Palestinian issue as a case of
yesterday's oppressed people doing the same to others, d'Escoto said the
cruelty of the Holocaust affords Israel neither a justification nor "the
right to abuse others, especially those who historically have such deep and exemplary
relations with the Jewish people."
D'Escoto urged a paradigm-shifting action that would end the
human suffering and not just offer symbolic rhetoric. He called on the
international community to consider stricter measures against Israel ....measures
similar to those taken against South Africa in the 1980s that include
"boycott, divestment and sanctions."
Whether in
Israel, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia or any where else, the vicious cycle of
oppression and human misery can only be broken when all people of conscience
rise to resist it, and pressure the powers that be to heed the moral will of
the people.
Abukar
Arman is a freelance writer whose articles and analysis has appeared in the
pages of various media groups and think tanks. He can be contacted at abukar_arman@yahoo.com.
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