A great visionary of all times Mohandas K. Gandhi in his article in 1938 writes his views about the Arab-Jew question on Palestine and the persecution of the Jews. At that time, Hitler was ruling Germany and the clouds of a terrible conflict begun to form shows his incredible sense of right and wrong. He writes, “My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa . Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews. But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice.
The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine . Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.
If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colorable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews. But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which many inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter.
The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province." According to Mahatma Gandhi, let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service.
"
Mahatma Gandhi sums up very profoundly with a word to the Jews in Palestine. "I have no doubt that they are going about it the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart, who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown in to the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in the their favor in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them." Victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. On the other hand the Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist according to Judith Tamar Stone, a jew, who founded Voice Dialogue Connection. As an internationally renowned Psychotherapist, Teacher, Facilitator and Communications Leader, she writes that the Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion once said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. No body can deny that Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. According to Stone, Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fiat accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. Human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people, concludes Judith Stone.
|
|
About the Author: WARIS SHERE was educated at the
Aligarh Muslim University, University of London and Technische Hochschule, Aachen Germany. He has authored eight books in the field of Applied Mathematics, International Affairs and Academic Futures: Prospects for Post-Secondary institution. He has taught Applied Mathematics at the University of Manitoba, Canada and Red River College, Canada for several years. His work on critical issues of International Affairs has been published globally. His main interests are Emerging International Order, Security and the Prospects for East-West relations and Dilemmas in Policy-Making for Education.
