December 19, 2024
By Nasser Kandil
• The newspapers of the occupying entity shamelessly report a statement from the commander of a brigade operating in Gaza, who described a pathway in Netzarim as the “Path of Dogs”, where the bodies of martyrs are discarded and left to be devoured by dogs.
• This report is an indictment of the Western governments that unabashedly support the occupying entity while lecturing us on human rights. It is also an indictment of the United Nations, its agencies, the international courts by all their names, and human rights organisations worldwide.
• But above all, this report is a stain of shame on the foreheads of every Arab and Islamic government, a brand seared between the eyes of every intellectual and elite figure in the Arab world who claim to champion human rights. These same figures can mobilise and speak for weeks and months over a case that may well deserve solidarity, such as the plight of Iranian activist Mahsa Amini, yet remain deaf, blind, and mute when confronted with the unprecedented savagery against humanity in Palestine.
• What is truly bewildering is that among the Arabs, only the weakest, poorest, and smallest nations in terms of population and resources have risen for Palestine and its tragedy. It is the countries whose lands have been ravaged, whose people have been starved – such as Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen – that have stood in solidarity. Meanwhile, the powerful and wealthy Arab nations, with their vast territories, gleaming swords, immense wealth, massive arsenals, and populations in the tens of millions, remain conspicuously silent.
• Perhaps Gaza is on the brink of a ceasefire agreement and may not even need these nations to pressure the master of war – the United States, whom they endlessly praise day and night. But could they at least deign to provide shrouds and burial teams to recover what remains of the martyrs’ bodies before the dogs devour them completely? Could they at least call their American ally to secure the occupation’s permission to perform this mortician’s task? For it seems that this has become the last, most modest hope that the people of Gaza have from them.
