On 12th November 2023, India voted for a resolution in the UN General Assembly that, with a majority of 145 voting in favour, calls for stopping of expansion of settlements in the Occupied West Bank. Only 5 other countries apart from the US and Israel voted against this resolution and only 18 abstained. Prior to that, India had abstained from voting on a resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Indian people are shocked at the inhuman treatment of a hapless population and demand an immediate cease-fire. The sentiment is not confined to India, but across the length and breadth of the globe. There have been demonstrations with millions of people coming out into the streets and demanding that their governments end their support to Israel. For its part Israeli leaders, military and civilian, members of government and even the President have said that because Hamas is somehow `embedded’ in the civilian population, in order to `eradicate’ Hamas, bombing civilians is part of their `strategy’. The US President has offered unequivocal support to Israel, despite the mounting resistance and criticism in the US. Youth have come out in legions to demand an end to the support, and it has been met with the harshest response from the establishment with demands to blacklist students opposed to Israel, with leaders of industry demanding a list of students who would be made ineligible for employment.

The result of the bombings besides killing over 13,000 people to date, nearly half whom are children, are the complete destruction of electricity supply, of water supply, and end of all hospital supplies, which are badly needed. Around 1.7 million people have been displaced.

As events are unfolding there is no sign that the Israeli establishment will change its path. Rather at the highest levels of government are those who quote Biblical passages from a different time, to justify the brazen violence. The totally racist, apartheid language being used is symbolic and symptomatic of the reasons for why there is no peace in the region. The peoples of India and the world demand an immediate end to the violence! The US and Israel establishments need to be tried and punished for their war crimes!

Lok Raj Sangathan fully endorses the worldwide sentiment that there must be an immediate cessation to the war in Gaza and demands an end to the violence.

Statement of Lok Raj Sangathan

Source of image: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2391211/world

By admin