LAHORE: What’s happening now in Gaza for the last one month has been going on for a long time but the recent happenings just woke up the people and hopefully the issue would get the world attention, says Sawsan Dalaq, a Palestinian educationist and the director of Children’s Museum in Jordan.

“I hope that the Palestinian children’s lives don’t go to waste. There is hope at the end of the day.”

Sawsan was speaking as a keynote speaker at a webinar, Palestine: Occupation and Resistance, organised by Lacas School here on Tuesday. Novelist Fatima Bhutto was the other speaker.

Dalaq is a displaced Palestinian. Her father was born in 1949 in Jaffa, now south of Tel Aviv, Israel. The family had to leave their home when her father was just three. Dalaq’s father never returned to his place.

Fatima Bhutto depicts horrific situation in Gaza, calling it genocide; tells students how to go for boycott

Fatima says the scale of what’s being witnessed is horrific. “In the last 32 days, the Israeli forces killed 10,000 people, including 5,000 children, while 50pc houses, 258 schools and 16 mosques have been destroyed. Thirty-six journalists and their families have been killed,” says Fatima, adding that the figures of deaths are much higher according to some other estimates and one child is being killed every minute. It’s not exaggeration to call it genocide, she declares.

Addressing the schoolchildren, she says she was not in favour of the use of social media for children but now they have to be there to raise a voice. “Students have been a bulwark against Israel simply by holding protests.”

When asked about the two-nation solution for Palestine, Sawsan Dalaq says the two-nation solution was a good idea 20 years back but it’s no longer good.

“We gave it a shot thinking at least to get something. But their (Israeli) plans are obvious. They don’t want peace or the two-state solution. They want to eradicate Gaza as it’s stuck down their throat.

Fatima quipped, saying the two-state solution offered only 22pc of historic land of Palestine to the Palestinians. Offering the two-state solution was akin to gas-lighting Palestinians, offering them something while offering them nothing. “It should be one state. Two-state solution is no solution. The media never explains to you the two-state solution.” She asked the students to question the authority and question the media that’s controlling narratives.

Questioning the bigger political scene in the world, Fatima Bhutto says a few countries like the UK and the US have tricked us to believe they are the international community.

“In the UN General Assembly, 120 countries voted for the ceasefire and they included Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia and others where most of the world’s population resides. They are the international community. Only 14 countries voted against it.” She says in the face of injustice, the Global South is standing on the right side of history.

To the questions of Anti-Semitism, Dalaq said Anti-Semitism is something that keeps being thrown at us. Referring to the etymology of Semitism, she said we can’t be Anti-Semitic because that would be against us. “The Jews do deserve a homeland. My grandfather’s best friend in Palestine was a Jewish. Jews have always been living in Palestine. We don’t want Jews out of Palestine but we want Zionists out.” If they went through genocide, how can they commit genocide against others.

Fatima explains that Anti-Semitism was practised by the West that killed the Jews during the holocaust. There have always been Sephardic Jews in Asia and Africa but nothing happened to them as they are assimilated.

“The issue of Palestine is not religious, it’s colonial. Zionism can be compared with Muslim fundamentalism. Many Jews are not Zionist as many Muslims are not fundamentalist,” she said.

Sawsan refused to make comparisons between Anti-Semitism and anti-human. “We don’t want to be anti or pro. We just need to be human. We should not be Anti-Semitic but human. They (Isrealis) want us to be involved in this debate to take the debate away from the main issue.” She said it was good to see people speaking up for Gaza for the first time.

“The Jewish people are marching in protests (against Israeli attack on Gaza) in London and New York and everywhere else on our behalf while the Israeli state wants us to be involved in the debate of Anti-Semitism. We should not fall in this trap,” says Sawsan Dalaq.

To the question whether Hamas represents Palestinians, she says that she was against Hamas as it was said that Hamas was an extremist organisation and its members were violent when a peace process was going on. “But Hamas is the only resistance right now though I don’t think they represent all Palestinians.”

Fatima urged the students to raise their voice for Gaza and Palestine as well as the Afghan refugees being driven out of Pakistan.

She says the companies supporting Israel should be boycotted and if the people in Pakistan think that there would be job losses if they boycott certain brands, naming a fast-food franchise, she says the boycott can be done of other companies that would not result in job losses in Pakistan, including fashion and computer brands. She says the list of companies was available at the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) website.

Talking about donations, Fatima says Gaza is under siege and nothing can get in there. So donations and food are not reaching there. Israel has cut access to water, electricity and fuel.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2023