By Jose Mario D. De Vega, University of the Philippines-Diliman
“If you are capable of trembling with indignation each time that an injustice is committed in the world, we are comrades, and that is more important.” -- Ernesto “Che” Guevara
A few days ago marked the third anniversary of the ongoing genocide that the Zionists have been carrying out against the Palestinians in a mercilessly sinister, systematic and blatant manner.
Throughout that long period, only a handful of Arab and Muslim countries could truly be counted among those that stood up, defended and sacrificed for the Palestinian people.
Yet now that the war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis of Yemen is intensifying, one is astonished to see Turkey and Pakistan suddenly activating the so-called Mecca Defense Pact.
One cannot help but ask: during these three years of Zionist brutality against the Palestinians, which continues to this day, why did they never create a Palestine Pact? Where is the Muslim army that will march to Jerusalem? Where is the collective Arab force that will liberate Palestine, so as Syria and Lebanon?
It is utterly important to highlight the frank perspective of a Yemeni activist, Ahmed Zaid regarding Shehbaz Sharif’s and Erdoğan’s involvement in the war in Yemen:
They sent 100 jets, all kinds of weapons and military equipment and millions of dollars in order to regain control of Bab al-Mandab.
But for Gaza they did nothing. They didn’t even send a single loaf of bread to Gaza while it starved to death. For three years they watched Gaza being slaughtered in silence.
Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi is correct: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan pretend to stand with Palestine and claim to love its people, but the painful truth is that they are all accomplices and collaborators of Israel, the United States and other imperialist powers of the West.
The horrific events unfolding in Palestine have revealed who genuinely cares about its people and who among the self-proclaimed Muslims and Arabs are merely impostors and the worst pretenders of all.
Meanwhile, when Iran was experiencing protests and demonstrations, all those countries that claim to champion democracy stood united in condemning it. Yet now that one of those same countries, France, is facing widespread nationwide protests and demonstrations led by students and young people, their hypocrisy has been laid bare before the whole world.
Apart from the violence employed by the police, they also appear unwilling to respect the very human rights they so often preach regarding these demonstrators.
As a result, they are now receiving a dose of their own medicine. Many netizens are calling for #FreeFrance, and in a supreme act of irony, the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran reportedly summoned one of France’s diplomats to demand an explanation. #BackToYou!
Meanwhile, the chief of the hypocrites, Trump, claimed that the unrest currently taking place in France is the result of the latter’s failed immigration policies.
Never has this creature uttered anything that is entirely correct, sound, or truthful.
The people rallying in Paris and in various other French cities are citizens of France themselves. How did immigrants suddenly become the issue? And even if, for the sake of argument, some of the protesters were immigrants, would that mean they have no right whatsoever to express their opinions and grievances? Whatever happened to the West’s much-vaunted commitment to human rights?
Then again, it is pretty much the same here in Brgy. ‘Pinas. Students who merely rally and express their concerns and views are met with state repression, intimidation, harassment and red tagging. Moreover, some are even suspended by their schools because of the instigation and pressure exerted by government military forces.
I am wondering aloud: when will they also use the same heavy tactics and evil methods to all the corrupt and the thieves in this miserable bankrupt barrio? When will they confront and utilized the same level of violence that they are doing to the people to those Chinese trespassers and brigands at West Philippine Sea?
It is yet another form of hypocrisy without equal.
The architects of the establishment constantly tell us that we should emulate Bonifacio and Rizal. Yet the moment one calls for reform or struggles for change, one is immediately branded a filibuster, a heretic, a revolutionary, or some other derogatory label.
The world we live in is undeniably strange and incontestably abnormal. Hypocrisy and pretense have become pervasive. Yet even so, we must remain faithful to who we are in a mad world that constantly pressures us to conform, blend in, and pretend.
To speak the truth to power, to remain steadfast to one’s principles no matter what and to stand for justice even if it is so difficult, in our abhorrent times is, indisputably, an act of freedom, liberation and genuine revolutionary courage.