Operation Protective Edge

I had planned other themes that I wanted to speak about, but I guess everything else can wait.

I am writing this today on the 21 st of July 2014, the day that followed the largest number of casualties (to date) as a consequence of Operation Protective Edge which was launched by Israel two weeks ago against Gaza. The immediate cause cited for the offence was the murder of 3 Israelis teenagers. As of right now, more than 425 Palestinians and 18 Israelis have been killed in the the operation launched by Israel. To say that the conflict appears to be one sided can be seen by the number of casualties on both sides. and with Iron Dome, the protector of the realms, the damage to Israel has been extremely limited. It should be maintained here that I do not expect Israel to wait for casualties and then take offence, but the type of offence as of right now, has been mercilessly and magnificently disproportionate.

Another thing that I have come across is the "qualitative military edge" which is an aid program of the government of the US for Israel. This seeks to maintain the level of the Israeli military to a point that is required to ward off danger from one specific country or a coalition of countries in the middle east "while sustaining minimal damage and casualties". I note it here to establish the level of sophistication that the Israeli army has and then to compare it with the military ability of a group of refugees with an extremely limited military capacity (the best "Qasam" rocket fired by the Hamas has a range of 16 km) and territory which is a mere 360 square kilometres. It is outrageously appalling to me.


Recently there were pro-Palestinian protests in London, Paris and some other cities. The way that Arutz Sheva, an Isralis news agency, reported it was by calling those protests "Anti-Semitic". I cant think of anything that could be further from the truth. The protests were ONLY meant to pressurize Israel into abandoning the ground offensive and should not under any circumstance be called anti Semitic. Interestingly though, I have been following the websites of Arutz Sheva, BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera and I have learnt that opinions are largely dependent on what website(or news source) a person may happen to follow.

Lastly, speaking of Anti Semitism, there are some points I would like to make. First and foremost I really respect the Jews because they have been instrumental in humanity's advance in many a fields including but not limited to science, astronomy, medicine, music and the arts. They have also gone through at least one of the worst human tragedies that humanity has as of date concocted for which humans all over feel sorry about. However as such, I had honestly hoped that as a group of people, they would have the utmost respect and concern for human life and suffering, but it brings me to tears to find out that it is not the case.

p.s I understand this post might get me into trouble, but I have to say this. 

Re-vo-lu-tion

This Saturday I got a text from a friend of mine and he wanted me to join him for a protest. I asked him what sort of a protest it is to which he just replied with only the word“Refugees”. Perplexed, I decided I haven’t seen him for a while, and protest and refugees seems like the perfect excuse. Some hours later we met at Hermanplatz which was the starting point of the rally. Finally I got to ask him what this protest was all about and he told me that there is a school in Kreuzberg (a locality in Berlin) which has been occupied by refugees and the government wants to throw them out of Berlin and here we are protesting against that.

What I understood was that there is a bunch of people who think that the right of movement should not be restricted or confined to a specific group of people. That people should be allowed to live wherever they want to live. Slogans like “kein mench ist illegal, bleibe Recht ueberall” and “Nationalismus raus aus dem kopfen” and “Say no to deportation” perfumed the air.

So what started as a decently apolitical day had turned into a marvellously beautiful rally for people’s rights to live wherever they please. What surprised me the most was that that there are people in Germany or more specifically in Berlin who actually think that everyone should be allowed to live wherever they want to. That they don’t believe that only because one is white, or born in Germany, he or she deserves to be treated any differently than people who are born in a second or third world country.

And when I contrast it with how people think back home I find myself treading an unusually porous surface. Why would these people want this eludes me altogether. But I do know that back home, people even have reservations when it comes to treating people from parts of Pakistan let alone from outside Pakistan. Intriguing.