TV channels and newspapers provide us with news of the atrocious crimes being committed by Israel against Palestinians on a daily basis.
The latest massacre of the Palestinian people, including women and children, by Israeli troops shows that the Jewish state is very much against resolving disputes amicably and deems violence as the only means of achieving its objectives.
Despite the pathetic conditions prevailing in the occupied territories, the United Nations appears to be very weak in handling the situation. The world body has not taken any firm decision or position for settling the problem between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Instead of playing the role of an impartial mediator, the UN has always supported the Israeli side. Even if resolutions are passed against Israel under pressure from some countries, they invariably remain on paper.
The fact is that Israel does not adhere to the UN resolutions and rely entirely on the support of the US within or outside the UN. No wonder, the Palestinian people continue to suffer injustice and the Israeli enmity and crimes on a daily basis.
The painful, gory scenes (of mangled bodies, with limbs or legs torn off) being screened on TV much too frequently constitute clear evidence of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
The Palestinian people are forced to starve because of the Western imposition of sanctions (a war to starve the people?), particularly on the Gaza Strip. Growing Israeli enmity toward them aggravates this pitiable plight. All this makes us sit up and think about the role of the Arab countries.
The Arabs, it seems, are watching the whole scenario pretty much like a football match. Even the spectators of a football match support either of the teams with much more enthusiasm than is evident in Arab backing for the Palestinian causes. We, therefore, call for a single Arab stance, which would be a source of honor for the Arabs. Lamentably, the Arab support for the Palestinian cause is limited to a handful of US dollars with periodical condemnations of the Israeli enemy thrown in.
But now, even those condemnatory statements seem to have stopped with the Arabs entrusting the Arab League secretary-general with this task.
We call on the international community to tackle the Palestinian issue based on just and fair criteria and abandon the usual double-standard approach.
In the absence of fairness and equity, things would get only worse and the crimes being perpetrated by Israel would continue unabated.
After all, Israel has all the arms required for committing more and more crimes on the Palestinian lands. We request the international community to immediately intervene and help halt the Israeli atrocities against the defenseless Palestinian people.
— Essa bin Mohammed Al-Zedjali is editor in chief of The Times of Oman.
