THE worst feeling in the world is self-doubt, the feeling that one’s firm beliefs may have been misplaced, that the ‘other’ we loved to detest may have been right all along, leaving us on the squirming pile of the detestable.

The New York Times has reported that thousands of foreign volunteers are lining up to fight alongside the Ukrainians and its correspondent was embedded with some of them. How many among us are enamoured by Che Guevara with his smouldering eyes and stylish beret? Most admire this Argentine for his selfless struggle in Cuba and other parts of Latin America. Literary masterpieces like The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls are Ernest Hemingway’s prime claim to fame. However, his sojourns during World War I and the Spanish Civil War are definitely a big part of ‘Papa’ Hemingway’s allure. No chiselling of sentences and no amount of storytelling can match up to the supposed battle scars where folklore and the manufacturing of the legends are concerned.

Take our own Faiz Ahmad Faiz. His stint in the British Raj’s army is not much talked about. However, his story would be incomplete without marvelling at his courageous self-exile in Beirut, editing a magazine partially funded by the PLO. He was poet extraordinaire, but the sheen of chivalry and an aura of being a revolutionary sans frontier added to his stature.

Similarly, Dr Eqbal Ahmad famously fought alongside the Algerian freedom fighters against the French colonisers during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). His friend and fellow revolutionary, Edward Said, in his eulogy, described Eqbal thus: “He was an epic and poetic one, full of wanderings, border crossings, and an almost instinctive attraction to liberation movements, movements of the oppressed and the persecuted, causes of people who were unfairly punished. He was that rare thing, an intellectual unintimidated by power of authority, a sophisticated man who remained simply true to his ideas and his insight till his last breath.”

What about those struggling to throw off illegal occupation?

So, the question is that if it is all right for volunteers to fight the big bad Russian bear alongside the Ukrainians, is it also all right for the so-called Islamists to enlist to fight alongside the Palestinians? There must be libraries full of international law differentiating between states and governments recognised by global bodies and conventions that determine the application of the rules of war to the aggressor and the defender. But what about those in the throes of the battle for self-determination, the struggle to throw off illegal and inhuman occupation? Should their supporters limit themselves to the available, albeit toothless, structures of protest? The brave government of South Africa is a case in point; it has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice for its continuing genocide in Gaza. Nicaragua, Colombia, Libya, and Mexico have applied to join the petitions. Six other countries have declared their intention to join the case against Israel.

Support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood comes under criticism as many governments proscribe them, but what if volunteers from various countries line up to fight alongside the Palestinians? Will that be tolerated? Or is it different from the official and unofficial support to Ukraine because of some Nato rule that the rest of the world cannot benefit from but must abide by?

The Russian aggression against Ukraine cannot be condoned under any circums­t­ances, and the Uk­­rainians have every right to defend them-

selves and seek int-ernational support and reparation from the aggressor. How­ever, one wonders if the foreign volunteers for Ukraine will suffer the same fate as the erstwhile mujahid­e­en-turned-Taliban-turned-terrorists-turned-Good Tali-

ban- turned-Bad Taliban-turned-fundamen-

talist/ extremists emanating from the Afghan ‘jihad’ who must now be stamped out for the good of humanity. Are there new OBLs and Haqqanis in the making? Will their religion, nationalities, and the colour of their skin ensure a fate different than the inmates of Bagram, Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and countless nameless Black Ops locations around the world?

In our local languages, the word ‘strip’ is translated as patti, meaning both a narrow land mass and a bandage. How apt the name ‘Gaza Strip’ is; the bandage, however, is blocking the collective sight of the world, not so much covering the wounds of the Palestinians. While ‘strip’ can mean a ribbon in English, it also means to disrobe. The most heart-wrenching scene of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharat sees the villain Duryodhana stripping Draupadi, the Pandava princess, in his court. Israel is stripping entire humanity of its dignity, turning us all into versions of Yudhisthira or Gandhari.

The writer is a poet. His latest publication is a collection of satire essays titled Rindana.

shahzadsharjeel1@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2024