November 7, 2023
Bureau report
ISLAMABAD
Hundreds of civil society activists, media professionals, traders, students and other concerned citizens on Tuesday, November 7, took out a rally in solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people and to condemn Israeli strikes on Gaza.
Participants chanted slogans for peace in Palestine and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Rights activist Tahira Abdullah criticized Western powers for their inaction in preventing the massacre of Palestinians by Israel.
“We stand with Palestine, but we are mere citizens. We are not in government, we are not in the armed forces, we are not the United States,” she said. “Until and unless veto powers are taken away in the United Nations, we will remain stuck where we are. A ceasefire can only be enforced through the UN Security Council and General Assembly without the veto of the superpowers.”
Israel declared total war and has since been bombarding the densely populated Gaza Strip with no pause. It is estimated that over 10,000 people, including 4,104 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks. Meanwhile, Gaza has been under siege for a month, with food supplies and medicine stocks critically low and aid barely trickling in.
Protesters at the Islamabad rally called on the international community to indefinitely open the Rafah Border crossing in order to ensure free flow of aid and safe passage of evacuating Palestinians.
“Aid containers are lined up in the Sinai Peninsula. At least a thousand aid containers are needed in Gaza on a daily basis, but only 20 to 40 are going through at a time,” he said. “Over 30,000 houses have been reduced to rubble. There are no exact numbers on the lives lost, but it is said that it is over 10,000 which include children and women.”
Journalist and rights activist Munizae Jahangir said that Muslim countries should take a strong stance to stop this oppression.
“Muslim countries should grow a spine and take a strong stance to put a stop to the massacre of women and children,” she held. “There are rules in war. One cannot bomb schools and hospitals, but we are seeing this as well. I am shocked at how the world is able to tolerate this.”