‘Silence of civil society, religious bodies over Gaza massacres is distressing’

Israeli forces have been killing on average 140 Palestinian civilians daily for the past ten months

Israeli massacre of over 100 Palestinian civilians in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians and a Mosque with the displaced at prayers in the same compound, must stand condemned

President Ranil Wickremesinghe should forthwith recall all those sent to Israel against the heightened threat of a wider Middle East war prompted by the killing of Palestinian Hamas leader and peace negotiator Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran followed by the massacre of a over hundred displaced Palestinians in a Gaza school and mosque  on  August 10. 

Israel has confirmed that it carried out the attack on the school.

A presidential announcement of July 31 stated that three high-level committees to ensure the safety of the citizens and look into their economic needs have been appointed.

Measures taken in this regard by the three committees if any have not been announced so far. As a first step, the government must recall workers sent to Israel before a major war breaks out.

In a controversial move, former Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara exposed the Sri Lankans to work in a war zone in the Israeli ‘Occupied Territories of Palestine’, following the displacement to the Palestinians who were hitherto employed in homes and farms in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, amidst the unceasing Israeli war in the region.

The silence of Sri Lankan civil society and religious institutions of these killings and the destruction to property by the Israeli forces  inspired by wrong Biblical interpretations is distressing, notwithstanding several independent Sri Lankan journalists’ write-ups exposing the horror and its religious background!

A media report on August 12 highlighted five Sri Lankan former soldiers fighting for Russia being held by Ukraine as ‘Prisoners of War’ and also that three Sri Lankan soldiers fighting for Ukraine had been killed in action. In the context of these serious happenings, it is imperative that Sri Lankans in Russia and Ukraine trapped by illegal contracts must also be brought back by the government before more are killed or arrested.

There are unverified postings in social media here of the formation allegedly in Galle of an ‘Israeli Youth Collective’ to politically support former Minister Manusha Nanayakkara, which the Election Commission, the Immigration Department and the three committees must investigate.

Visas to Israeli soldiers 

The Sri Lankan immigration authorities must be directed by President Wickremesinghe to refuse visas to Israeli soldiers entering Sri Lanka in the context of the Israeli forces killing on  average 140 Palestinian civilians daily for the past ten months and the advisory ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 19, 2024.

‘Silence of civil society, religious bodies over Gaza massacres is distressing’

Sri Lanka must adhere to the ICJ ruling which has spelled out on page 74 of its findings, the ‘Legal Consequences for Other States’. The ICJ has, amongst other matters specified that “They (referring to other States) are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

Meanwhile, Israeli massacre of over 100 Palestinian civilians in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians and a Mosque with the displaced at prayers in the same compound, must stand condemned as an  inhuman atrocity on the helpless, by an American-backed regime in the Middle East. Israel gave no advanced warning of the attack!

Unarmed children 

The CNN reported that “all of these people killed were civilians, unarmed children, the elderly and women” quoting Fares Afana, Director of Emergency Services in Northern Gaza. Though the Israeli Defense Forces(IDF) claimed Hamas fighters were the target, CNN asked IDF for evidence and the response was ‘intelligence reports’. 

Israel had sufficient expertise- from the well- known July 1976 Entebbe airport rescue mission of 104 Israelis hijacked in a flight from Paris to the July 2024 killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran- to target the Hamas fighters if they were in the school or the Mosque, without having to kill hundred innocent displaced civilians! 

On 18th July 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a resolution overwhelmingly rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian State with 68 votes rejecting Palestinian statehood and 9 voting for! 

Clearly Israel is destabilising the Arab world in the Middle East by destroying not only the two -State solution but by destroying Palestine and its helpless people as a nation. With the UN having created the problem engineered by Western powers in 1948, it has now and over the past 76 years demonstrated its helplessness to restore Palestine to the Palestinians or to achieve even the alternative offer of a two- State solution which presently stands buried with the nearly 40,000 Palestinians killed during the past ten months alone. 

Iran will however seek counter justice for the killing of Palestinian leader Haniyeh in Iran. 

(The writer is a President’s Counsel and a former Member of Parliament)