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#💔प्रसिद्ध साऊथ अभिनेता-डायरेक्टरचे निधन🌺
💔प्रसिद्ध साऊथ अभिनेता-डायरेक्टरचे निधन🌺 - THE INDIAN EXPRESS The Editorial Page SATURDAY , JUNE 27 , 2026 ● WORDLY WISE Topcats often begin as underdogs -Bernard Meltzer India remains silent on Gaza , the world continues to speak up N SEPTEMBER 2025 , the UN Inde pendent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory had concluded that Israeli authorities were committinggenocide against Palestinians in Gaza . In June 2026 , the same Commission - now headed by Justice ( retired ) S. Muralidhar , a distin- guished Indian jurist - has poignantly reit- erated that Israeli actions are intended to de- stroy the very existence of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children . The 94 - page report is a harrowing read . with grim details on the extent of the dev- astation perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the genocidal intent underpinning its ac- tions . At least 20,000 children have been killed , and another 44,000 have been wounded , many for life . The targeting of children is not incidental , but a deliberate strategy . Twenty - seven per cent of those killed or wounded have been children and many of the boys were found with bullets on the head and neck . Ninety - seven per cent of Gaza's schools have been destroyed . Healthcare infrastructure , including paedi- atric hospitals , has been destroyed , result ing in a 300 per cent increase in miscarriage and childbirth complications . In the two - and - a - half years since the das tardly , horrific , and absolutely unacceptable attack by Hamas on Israel , it has become clear that the retaliation of the Israeli armed forces and political leadership has been char- acterised by wanton cruelty and barbarity . Senior Israeli leaders , down from Prime Min- ister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior cabinet colleagues themselves , have called for the complete siege and total annihila- tion of Gaza , denounced the Palestinians as animals who have no right to exist , and defined success for Israel as hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza . Despite this clear genocidal intent , the support of President Donald Trump's gov- ernment in Washington DC has enabled the Israeli government to continue its ralidhar's report , which has sparked re- newed conversation and activism against the Gaza genocide , has been met with stony silence from the Narendra Modi govern- ment . It is hardly surprising - recall that Justice Muralidhar had been transferred out of the Delhi High Court after he called brutal campaign against Palestinians . But SONIA GANDHI out the Delhi Police's inaction on BJP the rest of the world has felt the pricking of its conscience . The UN has been unable to act with any resolve due to American obstruction , but through its agencies it has played a stellar role in the documentation of Israeli war crimes . Leading powers historically associ ated with the Western bloc - including France , the UK , Canada , and Australia- have recognised Palestinian statehood after decades of indifference to the Palestinian cause . South Africa , a country with which India has shared a long history of anti - colo- nial solidarity , has dragged Israel to the In- ternational Court of Justice for its violations of the Genocide Convention of 1948. Several European states have restricted arms sales to Israel , and several Latin American nations have downgraded or severed their ties with the country . The International Criminal Court has even issued arrest warrants for the Israeli political leadership . A very large number of countries with whom India enjoys close relations have recognised Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide . Amidst the growing public backlash against Israel and the in- ternational community's cogni- sance of the unjustifiable brutality unleashed on Gaza , India remains alone voice of silence . Justice Mu- leaders ' inflammatory statements in the run - up to the 2020 Delhi riots . India was historically exceptional among the nations of the world for our commitment to postcolonial solidarity , national sover- eignty , and international peace . Today we are exceptional in our continued indiffer ence to the flagrant violation of the global rules - based order , to the suffering of our fel- low peoples in the Global South , and to the abasement of human dignity that is on open display in Gaza and the West Bank . Hind Rajab's tragic story is emblematic of the unspeakable cruelty of the Israeli genocide in Gaza - agirl of just five , fleeing Gaza City with her family when Israeli forces fired 335 rounds at their car , killing her six family members , leaving her trapped in a car with her relatives ' dead bodies while paramedics attempted to rescue her . She was eventually killed , along with two para We are slipping further into Israel's strategic orbit , at a time when the world is increasingly pivoting away from it . The Prime Minister's visit to Israel a will go down in history as a bewildering strategic decision medics . The citizens of India , as citizens of the world , have a right to know the story of Hind Rajab and countless other Palestinian children . Yet , to defer to Israel's sensitivities , the movie was blocked for months in India , and has only now been cleared under immense public pressure . The Modi government's si- lence and inaction are not just mo- rally reprehensible but also inexplicable from a national interest perspective . We are slipping further into Israel's strategic orbit , at a time when the world is increasingly pi- voting away from it . The Prime Minister's visit to Israel amidst these circumstances , and only days before Israel's war on Iran and the assassination of its top political leader- ship will go down in history as a bewilder- ing strategic decision . We have alienated ourselves from our historical allies in Pales- tine , Iran , and the larger Middle East . We have distanced ourselves from global public opinion . And we have let Pakistan , of all countries , itself a state that has and con- tinues to harbour dreaded terrorists , swoop in to claim the space of a mediator - a role to which we would have a natural claim given our historically friendly ties with all players . Our sacrifice of our strategic inter- est and morality has yielded us nothing but the friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu , who is now under attack all over the world , in- cluding in the USA . The spirit of Indian nationhood de- mands that we speak up for our Palestinian brothers and sisters whose children have been so brutally targeted . The calculus of national interest demands that we respond to the global public opinion against the Is- raeli regime's genocidal actions in Gaza and its brutal displacement and dispossession of lakhs of Palestinian families in the occu- pied West Bank . The Modi government's continued silence simply cannot be ex- plained rationally or morally . The writer is chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party - ShareChat