KARACHI: Wearing black armbands, participants in a dialogue on the topic of ‘The Palestinian Conundrum: Economic Ramifications and Calls for Social Justice’ organised by the Egalitarians, an economics society at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) here on Tuesday, shared a wealth of knowledge and understanding behind the devastation and recent incidents in Gaza, Palestine.

Former ambassador Ghulam Rasool Baluch said that it was agonising to witness the ongoing genocide for the last seven months. “We can close our eyes when it becomes too painful to watch but we cannot close our conscience. The place has been made uninhabitable for Palestinians. It will take them at least 14 years to clean the Gaza Strip,” he said.

He also pointed out that the attacks on Gaza had nothing to do with religion. “It has everything to do with imperialist enterprise. It is simply an economic interest of the West to dominate the world through Israel,” he said.

Former ambassador Syed Hassan Habib said that the world was on Palestine’s side and yet it made no difference. “We are at a position where we have no solution. In this crisis the position taken by Israel is unrealistic.”

Experts share their understanding of devastation unleashed by Israel in Palestine

Economist and writer Dr Shahida Wizarat was of the opinion that cowboy culture was getting mixed with world order. “If you try to understand the psyche of the Israelis. They want to bomb out Gaza to make a beautiful sea resort there,” she said.

“We are looking at a similar situation in Jammu and Kashmir. India is seeking investments for their occupied Kashmir. The idea is to trample on populations who live in beautiful environs and build tourist resorts there,” she added.

Dr Asghar Dashti, educationist and expert on international relations, also said that the people of Gaza were seen by the West as “useless” people occupying a piece of valuable land so they need to be removed. “These days you need to look at countries as markets and their parliament houses as facilitation centres,” he said. “Whatever we are seeing happening in Palestine is happening in the name of development. There is the Israeli Ben Gurion canal plan, connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The place for this plan happens to be right next to northern Gaza,” he pointed out.

Senior journalist and analyst Wusatullah Khan said that it was in fact a misconception that the conflict between Israel and Palestine was religious. “Maybe your forefathers lived somewhere but left and have been gone for centuries. Then how can it be your right to go there one fine day and reclaim the same place, which is now home to someone else, on just this knowledge? The West has accepted this story that it is okay to throw out anyone from where your ancestors lived but it is wrong,” he said.

“Why won’t Germany give back what they took away from the Jews in Hitler’s time? The German compensation to Israel should have gone to the families of the victims of that time but it has gone instead to Israel. This was done to strengthen the Israeli economy, of course. Europe actually doesn’t like Jews. They don’t want them back if anything happened to Israel,” he added.

Assistant Professor and senior lecturer at IoBM Mohammad Zubair and President of the Egalitarians Fatima Asim also spoke.

Well-known social worker Faisal Edhi said that he had earlier accompanied his late father Abdul Sattar Edhi to Palestine to extend humanitarian help but this time it was just not possible. “Earlier, we used to go there through Egypt. But now even Egypt is not willing to allow us passage or give us a visa. Many other humanitarians are also trying to reach Gaza but are stuck,” he said.

“The problem is that Egypt is afraid. Egypt, like Turkey and Pakistan, is drowning in International Monetary Fund and World Banks debts. Therefore, they are also afraid of sanctions or demands from these two entities as they won’t be able to fulfil their demands that can lead to the toppling of their governments,” he added.

“Quite frankly, the Israelis are doing what Hitler was doing to them in his concentration camps. If he was a Rightist/Fascist power then so are the Israelis. They are no different,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024