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JUST WHAT DOES ON “BOTH SIDES” MEAN?

The year 2022 has seen an escalation of Zionist terror against Palestinians by the Apartheid/Zionist occupation army throughout Palestine. And as usual, from time to time, the so-called Security Council of the United Nations (UN) always appoints someone to investigate what is going on. Notwithstanding the findings that point to gross violations by the settler entity, the UNSC remains either unmoved or unable to impose sanctions on Israel due to America’s veto power.

This allows the apartheid regime to continue defying international laws with impunity. It results in failure to bring the perpetrator to justice, and makes a mockery of the UN Charter. It is also done to fool the world that the powers that be are doing something to protect the people of Palestine from this ruthless and bloodthirsty regime of Israel.

Apart from UN Special Rapporteurs with integrity such as Professor John Dugard and persons of his integrity, we sometimes are confronted with “probes” which fail to distinguish between the aggressor and the victim.

By making an unfair “moral equivalence” and by using misleading language such as “both sides”, the UNSC displays gross partisan against the occupied Palestinians. Interestingly the current high level probe by Francesca Albanese has come under severe attack by Israel, accusing her of anti-Semitism.

Now for those who know the strength of the Israeli Army as compared to the Palestinians, we are made to wonder what exactly they mean. It’s like an adult man of 26 years claiming that they had a fight with a 6 months old baby and that baby inflicted so much damage and wounded them so badly. The Israeli army is the fourth largest army in the world at the present moment. Israel does possess nuclear weapons, though undeclared, they have a considerable number of nuclear bombs and they are the only one’s possessing them in the whole Middle East.

What is this nonsense that we hear always of that “both sides” committed similar atrocities? The retaliations by the Palestinians are purely defensive in nature. Picture this in your mind, you went to sleep last night and you are awakened by the sound of a bulldozer outside your house and you are told that you have to move out immediately because they have come to demolish your house, the same house you retired to sleep last night, making plans for the next day when you work up.

Remember also that you would have lived there for the rest of your life. It is common occurrence for Zionist settlers who are in most cases white Caucasians from Europe, South Africa and the USA just coming to your house and they start firing automatic weapons on your house so as to scare you to run away so they that they take away your property.

Imagine your daughter or son coming from school and they fail to reach home because they would have been killed or arrested on some flimsy charges? When the world hears that “both sides” are equally to blame then they will blame no one. This is a very strategic technicality that they are using to sanitize Israeli atrocities when in actual fact the Palestinians are on the receiving end. Though the resistance in occupied Palestine is not heavily armed as compared to the Israeli army to be able to inflict damages in an equal measure, their right to self-defense is a right enshrined in international conventions. We call on the UN and its Security Council to stop playing these games with the lives of Palestinians. The information highway has allowed the world to know what is going on in Israel and the horror of its racist apartheid policies.

By:

Dr. Mustafa Mheta

Senior researcher/Head of Africa Desk

Media Review Network SA

Dean: School of Languages at Somali

National University (SNU) Mogadishu

Federal Republic of Somalia