#13 Selective Humanism

Since almost over a month, I was stopping myself from writing on this issue. But I cannot resist any more to express my concerns on perplexed international perspective. I'm saying this in terms of major international deadly conflicts going on in Middle East and in Ukraine as well. 7 days ago a long-term ceasefire has been agreed upon by Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, ending seven weeks of fighting that has taken lives of 2,200 people. Everyone knows that this is not the end of conflict but a temporal pause. A senior Hamas leader has said that they had carried out the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli civilians in the June. First time anyone from the militant group admitted it and that has helped spark the current war in the Gaza. Anyways I'm not writing to brief about this conflict but my concern is the farce attitude of the world. World powers are highly intrigued, but as other times have shown too, that they just focus on their self-interest only ignoring the harm of the other. The word Humanism is very fairly used to gain interest by siding some very important issues and the causes of them. The double standard attitude and biased reaction of the world on different issues stuck my mind to use this ink-horn term 'Selective humanism'.

Twitter posts, Facebook hash tags, Newspapers and what not? There was only one topic of discussion around the globe that is Israel Gaza war. The protesters, commentators, NGO workers, human rights activists - everyone have just forgot any other issue than Gaza. "Gaza under attack” was used like Israel is the only one responsible for everything. If any terrorist organization kill our people, we too expect same reaction from our govt.; and Israel did the same. I'm not a supporter of Israel but am a person irked by double standard in perspectives. My question is why did everyone forget about Syria when Israel-Gaza conflict started? Actually the world was silent on this issue since last 3 to 4 years. The uprising against Bashar al-Assad has been the biggest and longest story of what used to be known as the "Arab spring". The death toll in Syria in 3 years has reached more than 1, 90,000. We never heard "Save Syria" anywhere. Where were human right watchdogs and why they were not discussing this? But for Caza Protests everywhere, rallies everywhere, UN resolution to end Israel-Gaza fighting; in India demand to discuss this issue in parliament which in my opinion was completely senseless. Why world is silent on other issues. Israelis and their supporters complain about "selective outrage" and it is very true because a new name of terrorism expanding its feet in Middle East ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), is relatively ignored. Islamic terrorists in Iraq are killing children and are involved in human trafficking, thousands of Christians and Kurd were compelled to flee from towns, they bombed the churches and Shi'ite mosques, they mis-held women, and thousands of Yazidis had to escape to a mountain. Lot more can be said about ISIS but it is enough to verify my concern. After Gaza started, media has almost forgot to talk about Ukraine crisis. There were very few protests against kidnapping of hundreds of girls in Nigeria. So many other sensitive issues are still in world those are still covered.

Why other issues are not discussing like Israel and Gaza conflict? Is this because Israel Gaza conflict is conflict of two religious group? Where are protesters, commentators, NGO workers, human rights activists? Why opposition in India not demanding other issues to be discussed in parliament? Why are there no protests? Why the international community not taking serious measures to tackle all other issues? Why Why Why? When we ask this question we get very interesting answers. Some say Israel's retaliation is the violation of International rights but they don't want to know that Hamas is operating from schools, residential areas and even sacred places i.e. Mosques. Is ISIS operating under international laws? Is this acceptable? The number of rockets fired from Gaza are not less in number, the only difference is that Israel is capable to save its citizens. Taking a glance from Indian perspective, we know that Israel supported India in Kargil war against Pakistan. Organizations like Hamas always support the independence of Kashmir. But some political parties and people still oppose Israel. It's ridiculous.

It's a fact that any war in the world takes us years back. The shedding of innocent blood, bombing of buildings, spreading hatred are criminal acts. Those who carry out such acts have deviant beliefs and misleading ideologies and are responsible for the crime. But retaliations also cause severe damage as the bombs do not differentiate between the good and the bad people. I am reminded of the words I read in a book by Ayatollah Ali Khamene’that "Killing of people, in any place and with any kind of weapons, including atomic bombs, long-range missiles, biological or chemical weapons, passenger or war planes, carried out by any organization, country or individuals is condemned". The double standard response of powerful countries and people is unacceptable. Heavy outrage on some and unnoticed attitude toward other issues should be disregarded. Those who talk about humanity at some point and are silent at another point of time should be consistent with their reactions towards the similar chain of events. If it’s actually humanity, how can it discriminate between people suffering from similar if not same problems? I strongly disregard the nature of powerful nations and some people for showing‘selective humanity’as and when they find suitable.


- Prateek Dixit
(Edited by Rusheel Shukla)