Jumu’ah Post: The Apartheidic Apathy; point of reflection towards empathy


(A dedication to the recent homicide in Palestine)

Hostility towards an individual or a group, due to an existence of a wide difference in characteristics, like race, status, religion, etc, with him/her/them, is unjustifiable, for our being isn’t built to be legiimate on those characteristics mentioned above, but on the fact that we are all human and that alone unites us all in ways that can never be quantified, above those transient and trivial features. And to be hostile to one another, based on little different in features, isn’t only pitiable but has within it, some attributes of apathy, in addition to the ridiculous apartheid it reeks of.

To be empathic towards one another is to disallow or disapprove of any path which could lead to hatred among parties, but make forth excuses and justifications that may bring about fostering love and unity, as this forms a platform upon which a sweet world can be built. These, and more, are lacking among the states – Israel and Palestine – involved in the recent full blown homicide. May Allah rectify all evils associated with it, Aameen.

It becomes a surprise, in addition to how illogical it is, that the once needy now raises his shoulders to who once helped him, speaking less of him trying to displace the said person away from his zone of comfort, through which the help he got from the helper was possible at the first place. It’s insane, to be candid. It’s, in most cases, such effrontery from traitors, that later sows the seed of callousness in the hearts of people.

The basis of things makes their truth not far-fetched, and the Balfour Declaration, of November 2, 1917, is one of such enlightening basis, as it sufficiently touches the focal point of the crisis between Palestine and Israel. The declaration goes to establish the move, by the British government, whereby it created support for the establishment of “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, as put out by the then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, addressed to Zionist leader, Baron Rothschild. At the backdrop of this, is a noteworthy realization that these Jewish people, considered to be helped by the Brits, have been rigorously shaken from the tremors of being dejected destitutes, at various degrees, basically through the British Alien Act of 1905, which heavily restricted immigration of Jews into Britian, the 1924 America Immigration Act which restricted Asian and Jewish immigrants thereby accelerating the number of Jewish immigrants into Palestine through process of elimination. The Nazis also had their own hostile charge at the Jews in the 1930s, putting the latter in a miserable and needy position which needed quick rescue of asylum.

As the Americans, Brits and the Nazis decided to not welcome them into their lands, after the series of unrest they were exposed to, only Britain was fair enough to declare an arrangement – Balfour Declaration – that seemed to favour them, but at the expense of those that will be harbouring their welcome. The Palestines, given their coolheadedness and emapthy, allowed them, but little did they know that they had just been permeated by con artists that will dupe of them of what rightfully belongs to them. The fraudulent agenda of the absorbed Jews of then, led to creation of the 1948 Israel, as they believed to have gained grounds as leaders, on the soil of their empathic landlords that took them in, at their pitiable period of lows.

Empathy, from my own perspective, may be branched into 3 parts, none of which the Israelis have displayed in their dispositions, from what we see, and as fully blown out in this recent homicide in Palestine. It can be of innate characteristic, intentional, and reciprocal. Being naturally empathic may be an innate personality which inclines an individual/people toward being compassionate for no reason. It can be intentional, and that’s in the sense that one may reason or consider being empathic as a result of how he has directly or indirectly enjoyed the privilege of emapthy, as in the case of how the Brits declared a movement for a Jeiwish domicile at Palestine in 1917. It can also come as reciprocal, with regards to paying back the favor of empathy to those from whom it has been directly enjoyed, as in the case of how Palestines helped the pre 1948 Israel Jews at their vulnerable times.

The need for Israel to be merciful and kind towards Palestine, even if they feel they have attained heights that the original land owners of Palestine haven’t been privileged to reach, cannot be quantified. It is inhumane that what Palestines get back, from their generosity, is a disheartening Zionism propaganda that sees to kill them and seize them away from their homeland, with an account of recorded death of over 4,385, including 1756 children and 967 women.

This is a call to enable reflection on the need to shun apartheid and embrace empathy among everyone. The rise and payback of those afflicted with premeditated evil may be divine, in which Allah SWT directly reprimands the villain or when He grants their du’a against oppression. Do we not take cues from Allah’s statement when He said:
“Did He not make their plan into misguidance?
And He sent against them birds in flocks
Striking them with stones of hard clay
And He made them like eaten straw.”
Al-Fil [105: 2-5]

This points out Allah’s intervention in matters that are dear to Him, as He does not forsake His dear ones involved in such matters. The Year of Elephant, as depicted in the above chapter, was such a challenging one for the people of Makkah, but Allah gave them victory at the end, by sending help. This is an indication of Allah’s way of coming through for the oppressed, and the outcome of this, on the villains, may not be pleasant, therefore, it pays to be merciful to one another. It may take a span of time, but help is near for Palestine.

May Allah console the aggrieved among them, in these trying times, grant the martyred souls the loftiest of places in the hereafter, and grant them succor and triumph over these unfortunate events, Aameen.

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