By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle  

“I am angry at the blatant silence that has exposed our lack of humanity. Our humanity has absconded, losing its nobility completely in the face of the Occupation’s barbarity.”

The chairperson of the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, has voiced her outrage at the international community’s “blatant silence” over Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, saying the world has failed the children of the enclave.

“We have failed you, children of Gaza. No international law, no UN charter, no multilateral agreements have protected you,” Sheikha Moza said at an event in Doha marking the International Day to Protect Education from Attack on Monday.

"إنَّ ما يحدث في غزّة أماط اللثام عن وحشية عالم زعم أنّه متحضر وظنَناه كذلك وخاب ظنُّنا"

“What we are witnessing in Gaza has stripped away the world’s imagined veil of civility unmasking its sheer brutality. We thought the world was civilized, but it was not so” pic.twitter.com/Tifx3zUleH

— موزا بنت ناصر Moza bint Nasser (@mozabintnasser) September 11, 2024

She pointed out that a year has passed, “and no students are returning to the classrooms of Gaza.

“Some have died as martyrs. Some are on sickbeds, their arms or feet amputated. Some await their unknown fate, surrounded by death on every side while hope for peace, justice, and freedom diminishes away.”

The wife of the former Qatari Emir pointed out that more than 10,000 students and at least 400 teachers have been confirmed killed in Gaza since October 7 last year. In addition, 93% of schools have been destroyed.

‘Scholasticide’

She cited an “explicit warning” last April by 19 independent UN experts and rapporteurs of an intentional “scholasticide” in the Gaza Strip.

UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, recently stated that Israel has been “genociding the Palestinians … one school at a time” in the Gaza Strip, Moza added.

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Moza said the “human cost of the war on Gaza is unacceptable to any person with a conscience, morals, or humanitarian principles.”

“I am outraged by the crimes committed against the Palestinians and against international law. I am truly furious – angry at the scale and number of crimes committed in Gaza,” she stated.

“I am angry at the blatant silence that has exposed our lack of humanity. Our humanity has absconded, losing its nobility completely in the face of the Occupation’s barbarity.

Moza said she was also angry “at an international community that claims to be civilized. Gaza has revealed its hypocrisy.”

“I am angry at the leaders of countries who proclaim their anger over one war and remain silent about another. I am angry at leaders who blather about human rights and the mandate of international law and say nothing about the genocide taking place in Gaza. I am angry at leaders who often say that Palestine is the central cause of the Arabs, yet we see no centrality in their positions,” she added.

Hind al-Rajab

Moza stressed that she was “angry for Hind and I am angry for those killed before her and after her,” referring to the 6-year-old girl trapped in a car surrounded by her family members who were killed by Israeli forces.

Days later, Hind Rajab was found dead in the car as well, along with the two paramedics who were sent to rescue her.

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“What we are witnessing in Gaza has stripped away the world’s imagined veil of civility unmasking its sheer brutality,” stressed Moza. “We thought the world was civilized, but it was not so.

She said the “brutality extends beyond those who commit crimes and kill women and children,” and includes all who have supported “this depraved aggression with funds and weapons.”

It also includes “those who watch what is happening in Gaza; those who encourage it in private or in public; and those who choose to remain silent.”

Moza added, “After the veils have fallen, and we have lost our shared values, our principles, our very moral codes, what is left is Gaza: a litmus test against which all standards are measured.”

Over 41,000 Killed

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

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According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,020 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 94,925 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Millions Displaced

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

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The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)