OK, our brothers and sisters are slaughtered some thousands of kilometres away from us, and there's practically nothing we can do. Malaysians can't go to Israel, our passports prohibits us, but we are certainly not prohibited to go to Palestine. However, with the current unrest at the Gaza Strip, I seriously doubt our country would let its citizens to risk their lives for a possible jihad. In fact, probably there are no air traffic around Gaza, since their skies are filled with unmanned Israeli planes and drones.
So how can we help them? There are anti-war movements, strikes, parades and those kind of stuffs, and to be seen on the news and your placards being published on newspapers are a step forward to make yourselves heard, but if the Security Council themselves fail to act, then there is even less hope for these 'tiny' movements.
We can probably donate money. But will the money even reach those Palestinians? Israel are blocking all aids for them, food, medicals, artillery, so even if there is money, it would be very optimistic to hope that the money can be beneficial for them. (Still, it is very good to try. I do believe countless funds have been started throughout the world for the Palestinians, and these millions would surely be made useful I hope.)
There is another helping hand that we can lend. Boycott. I always hate boycott for the impracticality, but unconciously I myself do boycott certain things I don't like. In the wake of the sufferings of the Gaza people, SMSes and emails are spread out to give out a certain list of products to be boycotted.
People read it and said, "Wow, I use this and this product." Instead, I thought of, "Wow, how short was that list." To boycott on Israeli products is one thing. Boycotting Israel themselves would not work. We have to boycott their big brother who keeps feeding them. Yeap, America. And to boycott American products is a whole different thing.
My cousins said, to boycott America is to eat rice with some salt and to drink plain water. Almost true, I guess. In fact, probably they even have some share on the rice you eat or the plates you use. In other words, it is close to impossible to boycott them. Almost every single product that we use are somehow related to America.
That's what I call impracticality in boycotting. But there is one person that made me think, "Hey, why don't we at least try?" And that person is my ex-Prime Minister, Mr. Mahathir (surely some people would prefer me to address him as Tun, but oh well, it's just a title, I still have great respect for him for what he has achieved). He said we can actually hurt Israel and America by boycotting them, but above that, he also urged this to be a global effort, not just Malaysia. If what he said was heard and done by everybody, surely there would be some impact on them. Probably not catastrophic, but at least we played our part.
Still, I'm a stubborn kid, and I still think boycott is an impractical way to hurt a country's economy. The current global economy status itself is a crisis already, and that is because of America. If their economy is worsen, probably the whole world would get worse. And on a smaller scope, boycotting American products, say, McDonald's (haha, sorry McDonald's), it would hurt the employment of Malaysians ourselves.
Oh well, I don't know. At the end of the day, I always think boycott is more of an individual choice, personal ethics. I won't be very comfortable consuming American products when I know there are Muslims slaughtered with American and Israeli missiles and bullets. I know by boycotting, I won't affect the outcome greatly. I won't save lives by boycotting. At the very tiny least, I know I'm not helping America.
And lastly, we always have our prayers. And as I said oh so many times these last few posts, probably Allah won't suddenly give Palestinians a win, or suddenly stop the deathtoll, or suddenly grant a ceasefire, but at least we can always pray that the living would suffer less, that aid would reach them more easily, and the most important thing, that they would die with their faith intact, with Paradise awaiting them in their afterlife.
ﺍﻟﻠﻬﻢ ﺍﻧﺼﺮ ﺍﻹﺳﻼﻡ ﻭ ﺍﻟﻤﺴﻠﻤﻴﻦ ﻓﻲ ﻓﻠﺴﻄﻴﻦ ﻭ ﻓﻲ ﻛﻞ ﻣﻜﺎﻥ
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