Gaza in Ramadan

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  by Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh

Palestinian children hold a representational funeral for their 10-year-old peer Yezen Al-Kfarna who died of malnutrition, and protest the famine caused by ongoing Israeli attacks and blockades in Rafah, Gaza. [Abed Zagout – Anadolu Agency]

There is no doubt that every Muslim with a sound heart and pure soul is experiencing two conflicting feelings upon entering the month of Ramadan this year: a feeling of innate joy in welcoming this holy month, which the Islamic nation eagerly awaits every year and receives with decorations, joy and its special rituals of lanterns, sweets and so on. This is accompanied or contrasted by another feeling, one of sadness and grief for our people in Gaza, who are hungry and thirsty, as bullets tear apart their bodies and the bodies of their children, and hunger and thirst dry up their flesh and there is no one to help them. Their homes have been demolished and they spend the night in the open, under the sky in extremely cold weather. They have no shelter, food, drink, or medicine. All of this while the world watches. It is as if the world is enjoying watching a fictional Hollywood movie. It is a world without a conscience, a world that has lost its values and principles. They claim to be civilised and progressive and to promote human rights while they are the ones killing free people who stand up to their injustice and tyranny!

Perhaps the most painful and distressing matter is finding those close to them on whom God bestowed His bounty, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, conspiring against the Palestinian people in Gaza and allying themselves with the Zionist enemy, which completely destroyed Gaza making it uninhabitable. This is instead of sending them money and humanitarian aid, and I will not even say sending the weapons stockpiled in their warehouses. What they are doing instead is holding concerts and dance festivals. They sing, dance and have fun while their brothers in Gaza are slaughtered and killed in cold blood.

In this holy month, the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting and worship, they produced dozens of television series costing hundreds of billions of dollars to distract people from the spirituality of this holy month. Satellite television screens are filled with scenes of wickedness and immorality. This is a tradition they invented nearly a quarter of a century ago, but it has increased in the last ten years and has become even more immoral as part of a war on Islam, unfortunately waged by Islamic countries!

We hoped that they would reach a ceasefire agreement, but the negotiations failed, and the Security Council will not be able to issue a resolution to stop the war in Gaza because the US will use its veto power against it because it is an actual and genuine partner in the war and does not want the Islamic resistance in Gaza to emerge victorious. US President Joe Biden frankly said that they will not stop the war in Gaza, even though the world was surprised last Thursday by his announcement that the American army would build a temporary port on the coast of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid by sea. The decision can be considered an initiative from Washington to contribute to responding to the many warnings issued by the UN organisations about the spread of famine among the residents of Gaza. We can also consider it an American response to the position of the Zionist enemy that contributes to spreading famine and using starvation as a weapon of war to break the will of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and put pressure on the resistance factions. This being achieved by Tel Aviv deliberately placing many obstacles to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as the attack on some relief convoys inside the Strip, posing a threat to all truck drivers.

Some, including myself, believe that Washington’s goal behind this anticipated port is malicious, especially since this aid will pass through Cyprus, where it will be inspected before reaching Gaza. The US will not be satisfied with Israel as its large military base in the Middle East, but rather will put its weight into the Mediterranean and establish a port under its leadership and supervision over the Mediterranean Sea to prevent China and Russia from establishing a waterway there.

We are close to a third world war, ripples of which began when Russia invaded Ukraine and which is now continuing in Gaza, which has shaken the world and turned it upside down. Perhaps the geographical maps of the world will change. Perhaps some countries will disappear while other countries will arise, empires will disappear and others will rise. The world after 7 October, 2023, definitely will not be the same as it was before.

We are living in an atmosphere similar to that at the end of World War II and the subsequent formation of a new world order that is still in effect today. America’s defeat at Pearl Harbour against Japan in World War II later turned into a gain, as the US managed through its success in confronting Japan and Germany, to lead the world and become a refuge for all countries that suffered from the effects of the Second World War.