Enough suffering

The burning to death of an 18-month-old Palestinian child by Jewish settlers last Friday continues to spark an international outcry demanding an immediate end to the era of colonisation of the West Bank by Israel. 

The toddler, Ali Dawabsheh, whose parents and brother are fighting for their lives as a result of the arson attack on their home in Duma, has become a symbol of the dire neglect of the Palestinian issue for over half-a-century. 

In a tweet, Her Majesty Queen Rania commented that “it is unconscionable that an innocent baby has to pay with his life for the world’s ongoing indifference to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” This is the essence of the tragedy that befell the Dawabsheh family and the message that it sends to the international community, especially the major powers in whose hands the fate of the suffering Palestinian people still hangs in the balance. 

Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to condemn the attack and pledged to fight terrorism by settlers, the fact that settlers were allowed to usurp Palestinian lands and live among Palestinian people under direct Israeli occupation is the root cause of the heinous crime.

As long as there is an Israeli occupation and the settlement policy continues to pave the road for more and more Jewish settlers to colonise Palestinian land, more innocent people can be expected to be killed. 

Ali Dawabsheh is no more but the Palestinian tragedy will continue to haunt the conscience of the world as long as Israel’s policy of occupation and its violation of Palestinian rights, lands and homes is tolerated. 

Let there be new international resolve in the name of the Palestinian toddler to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all so that no more innocent people are sacrificed.