Pakistan should do more for Palestine
https://arab.news/w3324
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, tens of thousands more have been injured, and untold numbers remain buried beneath the rubble of Gaza’s cities. As Israel’s genocidal campaign enters its tenth month with no signs of abating, the country’s backers in the West – primarily the United States – have little interest in using the leverage they possess to bring the slaughter to an end. Indeed, even the prospect of a wider regional war involving Iran seems to have done little to deter the cynical political ambitions of Netanyahu and the right-wing zealots in his government who have openly and explicitly acknowledged their desire to annex Gaza and expel its people.
In this context, it is important to reflect on how Pakistan has situated itself with respect to Palestine. Historically, since the late 1940s, Pakistan has consistently voiced its support for the Palestinian cause and remains one of the few states in the world that has refused to extend diplomatic recognition to Israel. Yet, as Gaza continues to be ravaged by Israeli bombs, Pakistan has remained relatively muted in its condemnation of Israeli violence. There are several potential reasons for this. Pakistan is currently beset with a host of problems and contradictions; even as a distracted government and military establishment seek to shore up their eroding legitimacy, the country’s economic woes continue to leave it at the mercy of various donors – particularly the IMF – whose own political inclinations might act as a constraint on voicing more explicit support for Palestine. At a time when Pakistan can barely put its own house in order, is it realistic or even helpful to expect more support for Palestine?
Israel’s atrocities in Gaza have highlighted the existence of a very clear global divide when it comes to the question of Palestine. In the formerly colonized world, from Brazil to Indonesia, across Africa and Asia, the fact that Israel is perpetrating unspeakable atrocities in Palestine is widely recognized and accepted by governments and publics alike. Elsewhere, in Europe and North America, former colonial powers and current imperial hegemons remain united in their defense of the indefensible, providing money, weapons, and diplomatic support to Israel. While there are some in these colonial centers of power who have stood on the right side of history and questioned the support their governments have provided for genocide, the hypocrisy of the so-called ‘liberal’ word order is plain to see. Even as the United States and its allies continue to proclaim their belief in the supremacy of international law, human rights, and ‘freedom’, they have been unstinting in their support for an apartheid state that has shown nothing but contempt for the Palestinian victims of its violence.
As Gaza continues to be ravaged by Israeli bombs, Pakistan has remained relatively muted in its condemnation of Israeli violence.
Hassan Javid
This is, of course, unsurprising. It is unrealistic to expect any different from states with a long history of violence in the formerly colonized world. When Netanyahu claims that Israel stands for ‘Western values’, he is not wrong; after all, colonization, dispossession, expropriation, and genocide are all crimes perpetrated and perfected by the British, French, and Germans in Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Namibia, Vietnam, India, and so on.
All this has always been accompanied by racist rhetoric in politics and dehumanizing narratives in the media that have consistently portrayed the formerly colonized peoples of the world as dangerous and inferior. The West may genuinely believe in protecting ‘human rights’ but if the past year has made anything clear, it is that the definition of ‘human’ in this framework does not necessarily include the past and present victims of imperial violence.
In the 1960s and 1970s, a rapidly decolonizing world seemed to be ripe with possibility. As freedom fighters around the world, from Algeria to Vietnam, forced their colonial occupiers out, many anti-colonial leaders sought to develop an alternative world order to counter the economic and political hegemony of the Global North. Initiatives like the New International Economic Order and the Non-Aligned Movement explicitly recognized the right to self-determination and attempted to build solidarity in the Global South based on a shared history of exploitation at the hands of predatory colonial powers. The reasoning was simple; the only way to counter imperialism was to form a united front against it.
This is a lesson that is worth remembering today. Some within Pakistan have suggested that the country should throw its considerable military muscle behind the Palestinian struggle. There are compelling practical reasons why this cannot happen, but that does not mean Pakistan cannot provide other forms of material, diplomatic, and ideological aid. Like South Africa, which has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, Pakistan can and should play more of a role in holding Israel accountable for its crimes and doing what it can to mobilize international opinion against the ongoing genocide. This is especially important at a time when countries like India, erstwhile supporters of the Palestinian cause, have reoriented their approach amid changing domestic political imperatives. As a country that continues to grapple with the legacy of colonialism, and which remains constrained by its dependence on imperial patrons, Pakistan has every reason to support the struggle for Palestinian freedom. After all, it’s only by forging bonds of solidarity with oppressed peoples everywhere that Pakistan can help to build a world freed from the hegemony and selective morality of the West.
- Hassan Javid is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of the Fraser Valley.
