‘West Has Given Israel Carte Blanche to Continue Atrocities in Gaza’: Analyst
“The West, and in particular the US, have given them carte blanche to continue their atrocities against innocent people who are just struggling for their dignity and their legitimate rights,” Abdennour Toumi, a North Africa studies expert at ORSAM Center (Center for Middle East Studies), told IQNA in an interview on Monday.
The comments come amid a devastating war that Israel has been waging against the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7, after the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups staged Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a surprise attack into the occupied territories, in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the Israeli onslaught has so far killed over 5,000 Palestinians, including 2,055 children and 1,119 women, while more than 15,000 people have been injured.
“These atrocities that have been going on for 75 years and the ongoing war crimes led by the colonial state are the confirmation of what we call the international community,” Toumi added.
He said the conflict in Gaza should not be seen as limited to “the last seven 17 days,” rather, “we are speaking of Gaza for the last 17 years that the strip has been going through severe brocades that is also the consequences of the occupation.”
“When you have an occupation there is resistance and this is obvious,” he stressed.
“Palestinians in Gaza have been suffering from revenge and collective punishment because of their resistance to an occupier,” he highlighted.
“The colonial state leaders do not care about what the international community leaders would say.”
Muslim states can use oil card
Asked about the response of the Muslim world to the conflict, Toumi said one should differentiate between leaders and people when speaking about the Muslim world.
People are taking to the streets and “challenging their leaders to act,” he said, referring to extensive protests in several countries such as in Egypt and Jordan.
Muslim countries’ leaders can do something, he said, stressing, “There is the oil card.”
Muslim countries did try this fifty years ago, he said referring to the Arab oil embargo of 1973 in which shipments of oil from the Middle East to the US and few other states were stopped after the Western support for the Israeli regime in the wake of its war against Syria and Egypt.
The oil embargo “was a strong message to the West,” Toumi added.
He noted that Muslim leaders should continue to let people take to the streets to send a message to the Israeli regime and its supporters about the public opinion in the Arab and Muslim world about the Palestinian issue
‘Very very hard’ to any regional country to normalize ties with Israel
The operation on October 7 was a “strong message” to some leaders in the region who had “buried the Palestinian cause,” he said, adding that Palestinians have “recovered their cause and will portray themselves in the new equation.”
He noted that what is going in Gaza will “slow down” the normalization process, adding, “It will be very very hard for any country now in the region to normalize [ties with Israel] or think about the possibility of normalization.
Biased Western media
“Western media are biased by essence when it comes to Muslims and Arabs,” the analyst said, referring to the coverage of wars in Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and others.
He noted that social media has provided the opportunity for people to have other alternatives to the mainstream media
The analogy of October 7 offensive to the 9/11 was “senseless”, he said, adding, “Some Western media did get trapped to that and sold this narrative to their viewers.”
This analogy is “not true and is not the same by all means,” he stressed.
France policies
Historically speaking, France has taken an “almost neutral” position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he said, referring to some of the historical developments.
He described French President Emmanuel Macron as an “incompetent president with zero competence in foreign policy and world affairs.”
Instead of maintaining a “balanced policy”, Macron supported the atrocities committed by the regime and had a “very timid phrase about humanitarian aid as if Palestinians in Gaza were hit by a hurricane,” the analyst added.
Interview by Mohammad Ali Haqshenas
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the view of the International Quran News Agency.
