ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Speakers during a discussion here on Saturday attributed the Israeli massacre of 1,300 Palestinians - 40 per cent of them women - to the disunity, lack of democracy, absence of leadership and bad planning and tactics as well as indifference of their Muslim neighbours.

Chairing the discussion on the causes of Gaza invasion at the International Islamic University, President IIU Dr Anwar Hussain Siddiqui lamented that no Muslim neighbour had helped the Palestinians.

He compared the situation with that of the Vietnamese war. But the Vietnamese were completely united in their war with the United States, and also received weapons and other hardware from their Chinese neighbour, he said.

Referring to the oft-repeated statement that Israelis enjoyed powerful lobby in the United States to be able to perpetuate horrible atrocities on the Palestinians, Dr Siddiqui asked why Muslim countries were not able to acquire the same excellence in having their voice heard in the corridors of world politics.

This is due to disunity in the Muslim world, he said, pointing out that a number of Arab countries considered the Palestinians as mischief mongers.

Even the OIC, which claims to be an organisation of Muslim countries, has repeatedly remained ineffective in drumming support for the Muslim cause.

He said even in Pakistan we witnessed little effective actions but only protest demonstrations and that too after adoption of the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire.

In contrast, the Israelis have established unity in their ranks and besides it was a democratic country. On the contrary, democracy is practiced in a few Arab countries. This helps Israel to do abominable things with impunity.

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy expressed both anguish and anger at the three weeks of Israeli invasion. However, he agreed that oppressed Palestinians had an inalienable right to resist.

He said due to lack of effective leadership as well as tactics, the Palestinians had been defeated in 1992 as well as in 2006. The Muslim world lacks education which alone could provide leadership to the Palestinians.

Ambassador Tayab Siddiqui said Palestinians were suffering because they lacked adequate resource to match their aims, adding the Palestinian act of defiance had roots in the genocide being committed by the Israelis.

He said during the recent Gaza invasion, $5 billion worth of infrastructure was destroyed. This is what the Israelis wanted and the delay in adoption of the UN resolution took place because Israel wanted to complete the destruction.

He said the US was complicit in this delay. In fact, when the resolution presented in the United Nations was cleared by the secretary of state, the prime minister of Israel phoned President Bush about his objection and said he did not want the resolution tabled. That is why the US abstained, Ambassador Tayab added.

There was a rapture of disapproval from the audience when the name of Hamas was mentioned among the rank of extremist elements. A participant said Hamas is on record saying that it would stop firing rockets towards Israel if that country halted atrocities in Palestine.

Two women students urged more positive action in Pakistan to help the Palestinians, and in reply a PhD Student from South Africa, Dr Jonaid Ahmad, asked them to handle advocacy work and educate people in general about the issues involved as to why the Palestinians have been facing defeat.

Jonaid said such advocacy is taking place even in Israel where a number of women come out every day and hold protests against Israeli barbarous action. “Slowly and surely the voice in favour of Palestine is reaching across the world, and even hard Americans are coming out in protest against the collusion between Israel nod the United States, he said.