The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) urges an urgent ceasefire of Israel’s war of annihilation of the hapless Palestinians in Gaza. The Jewish nation, supported by the US and others, rejected various ceasefire efforts at the UN. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also rejected the latest offer of truce by Hamas, Palestinian military fighters.
The war that started on October 7, 2023, killed more than 28,000–half of them being children–and wounded more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas sources. Three-fourths of the 2.3 million Palestinian people have been rendered homeless and are suffering in the severe winter cold under open skies or in makeshift camps with limited food and medical care. About half a million of them are facing famine conditions due to the Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid. The death toll rises with every passing moment. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are poised to assault Rafah where 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed, and the UK, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia warned of serious consequences of such an action. The US, the EU and the UN also voiced concerns. But the US-supported Netanyahu remains defiant.
Earlier, on October 17,2023, CHRD Bangladesh issued a statement demanding an end to Israel’s Devastating War against the Palestinians, further requesting the concerned parties to urgently seek a permanent solution to the 75-year old crisis. (Please see the statement Statement To End Israel’s Devastating War Against The Palestinians | ChrdBangladesh).
The US-led western countries supported the Israeli attack, which was precipitated by, as Israel claimed, Hamas firing on October 7 some “5000 rockets, by land, sea and air,” killing some 1,200 people in Israel. Some of these countries now started criticizing Israel for unnecessarily extending the war and causing death and suffering to hundreds and thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Sarah Yager, Director at Washington’s Human Rights Watch, in an article on February 8, 2024 found a dichotomy in the US policy in which the US criticized attacks on civilians in Ukraine and Syria but condoned those in Palestine. The Jewish state, which receives most of its military aid from the US, is bound by the restriction not to use them in an unlawful manner. But the US officials routinely avoided comments on Israeli action in Palestine that could amount to violation of human rights, as per Section 502 B of the Foreign Assistance Act. She also pointed out that the US State Department found violations of International Law by China, Ethiopia, Myanmar and Sudan but remained completely silent about Israeli violations. Yager warned that if the US failed to ensure the IDF’s legitimate use of the US supplied miliary wares in Palestine, it would amount to “hypocrisy,” for which the price could be very high.
CHRD Bangladesh urges once again that a ceasefire must be enforced forthwith in Palestine, with a view to preventing any further loss of innocent lives and ending the suffering to innocent civilians. CHRD Bangladesh also requests that the major stakeholders in the crisis and the international community find a just and lasting solution to the decades old outstanding problem at the earliest.