“The innocence of the refugee child, compounded by the pain of hundreds of refugees fleeing into nowhere of sorts, brought into focus the grim reality of those trying to seek refuge… “
Humra Quraishi
The ongoing targeted bombardments and killings by the Israeli forces in the Middle East are spreading out. The targeted countries and civilian populations survive in fear and amidst daily rounds of disasters and destruction.
This ongoing destruction is bound to affect us. We have already been leaving imprints here in our country. In terms of employment and job avenues, business and trade, travels for pilgrimages and ziarats, and interactions of academics during seminars and meets.
One could see and sense changes coming about here, in the country, from the 90s, when America intruded into Iraq. Before the USA aggression into Iraq, the Iraqi Embassy in India, then situated at New Delhi’s posh Jor Bagh locality, was ‘alive’; buzzing with activity with over 40 Iraqi diplomats at work. And almost double the number of the junior rung staff.
As the ‘mother of all wars’ peaked in the 1990s, I would visit the Iraqi embassy several times to interview the then-Iraqi envoy to India. I also met many Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, who gathered there in large numbers, outpouring support for Saddam Hussein, “for taking on the superpower of the world – America!”
I saw for myself Indian families carrying huge food and ration containers and medicine cartons, pleading that those be sent to the Iraqi soldiers fighting the Americans… Contrary to the Western propaganda that Saddam Hussein was a regressive tyrant, Iraqi diplomats and their families residing in New Delhi seemed far ahead of the times.
The envoys and their spouses were well educated, the attires very Western, and most spoke fluent English. I recall the receptions hosted by the then-Iraqi envoys at their official residence/bungalow on the Prithvi Raj Road, which was gifted to the first Iraqi envoy posted to India in the 1950s by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Those receptions continued till Iraq was Iraq!
When July 17th heralded the celebration of Iraq’s National Day with a series of receptions, with Iraqi intellectuals, editors and writers, and the top creamy brass flying down here, from several cities of Iraq. Of course, that was before it was intruded into and ruined by American and Allied Forces on that alibi of ‘looking for weapons of mass destruction’ but didn’t manage to find any! Instead, they destroyed that land, its very fabric, its people, an ancient civilization.
Stand out memories of the cultural evenings held in the 1990s, by the Arab envoys to India. I recall the first time I heard a Dhrupad concert was at the residence of the then envoy of Qatar to India, Dr Hassan Al Nimah. He was one of those diplomats who hosted classical musical evenings in that traditional Baithak style. Also, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, and Algeria envoys would host interactive meets at their residences and embassies. Today I am unsure whether the once well-functioning Arab League office in New Delhi still functions with that level of outreach.
After all, there’s been a slow and steady phasing out of the vibrant and spirited strength of the Middle East and the West Asian countries. Rather too obvious that several of these countries are battling on various fronts, devastated by the tactics cum strategies of America and Allies, using the age-old Western ploy of creating a civil war-like situation, with that going right ahead to rule!
Compounding the situation for Indians is India’s apparent slant towards Israel and Allies. This pro-Israel tilt was more than obvious right from 2014, peaking in the summer/July of 2017 when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first trip to Israel.
What a contrast to India’s stand under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision and policies vis-a-vis West Asia made the Arab world tilt towards India. He was clear about his stand on Palestine, and with that made the Arabs and West Asians strong allies of India.
Today there’s no Nehru and there’s little trace of the connection with the Middle East… I have attended Press Conferences of fiery Palestinian envoys to India and the emotions they generated amongst the Indian masses. I recall that warm hug that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave Indira Gandhi when she had hosted an elaborate reception for him in New Delhi.
Today, that’s all history as disturbing patterns emerge of the changed world order. Where there’s little concern for human life, for that basic survival. A major offshoot of this Israel unleashed war on the Arab lands, is the very future of the young.
Victims of the political wars and civil strife, hundreds and thousands of Arab children are either dead or dying. Those surviving with nothingness to them. Haven’t we all seen shots of Syrian, Palestinian, Yemeni kids and their families looking about all too hopelessly… Many tried to flee. Even those managing to reach Europe are treated as aliens; tags thrown at them – suspects, intruders, beggars seeking refuge!
Many children lay dead even before they could reach some sort of destination. For months, I couldn’t get over the picture of the Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, lying dead by the seashore. The innocence of the refugee child, compounded by the pain of hundreds of refugees fleeing into nowhere of sorts, brought into focus the grim reality of those trying to seek refuge… European Right-Wing lobbies coming in the way, sealing the fate of hundreds and thousands of Aylan Kurdis, who ironically have been reduced to refugee status because of the civil war triggered by the Western expansionist strategies.
Before I could recover from Aylan Kurdi’s death, what had hit were those haunting photographs of the four-year-old injured Syrian child, Omran Daqneesh. Though alive, he looked lifeless; covered with blood and dust he didn’t cry in pain or shock. And then came news of Omran’s older brother, 10-year-old Ali Daqneesh, succumbing to his injuries. Hundreds of children and their families have been killed or disabled in and around Syria by bombardments and much more havoc.
And such is the level of intolerance spreading out in the Western world, that even refugee children are seen as potential threats. Sadist cartoonists lampooning dead refugee toddlers! Why French publications like Charlie Hebdo mocked the tragic death of the Syrian child Aylan Kurdi? Wasn’t that lampooning blatantly vulgar and much too insensitive?
And though to date refuge-seekers from the Arab lands haven’t reached this part of the subcontinent, possibly because of geographical barriers, if they do they would experience another set of dark realities. Today, in India, there are hundreds of internally displaced. Entire clans and families are forced to shift from one locale to the next, as the land and political mafia is unleashed to target vulnerable communities. Made to run from their ancestral homes, made to survive like refugees in their own country!
CHILDREN OF PALESTINE!
On this upcoming Children’s Day, November 14, the focus ought to be on the children of Palestine. Facing the most traumatic childhood; each day dripping with sorrow in the backdrop of killings and more killings. The ongoing bombardments and targeted attacks on them and their homes, tents, shelters, schools, mosques, and hospitals, by the Israeli forces.
Leaving you readers with this verse of Faiz Ahmed Faiz – ‘Song for a Palestinian Child’. This verse is tucked in the volume – ‘A Song For This Day – 52 Poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’ (Sang-E-Meel Publications). Translated from Urdu to English by Shoaib Hashmi, accompanying images from the works of Faiz’s daughter Salima Hashmi, the verse stands out, along a diverse range… This volume was published around December 2009 but holds out to this day. Here goes this verse by Faiz Ahmed Faiz:
‘Song For A Palestinian Child/
Be still, child!
For your mother too is still, in sleep/
Having poured out all her pain in tears/
Be still, child!/
For it is but a moment since/
Your father laid down his burden of woe/
Be still, child!/
For your loving brother/
Has left the home of his fathers/
To go seeking the beautiful butterfly of his dreams/
And your sister too has left the hearth/
To set up a home in an unknown land/
Be still, child!/
For here, in your little courtyard/
They have bathed the lifeless sun of days/
And interred the lifeless moon of the night/
Be still, child!/
For your mother and father/
And brother and sister/
And the sun and the moon/
If they hear you weeping/
They will weep with you, and you with them/
And if you smile, then perhaps/
One day, transfigured/
They will all come back, to be with you.’
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The post How will ongoing destruction in the Middle East is impacting us? first appeared on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..
The post How will ongoing destruction in the Middle East is impacting us? appeared first on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..