The Palestine question is a moral question of our time: Stanly Johny 

Journalist Stanly Johny discusses Israel-Hamas ceasefire, his book on Palestine, and India's stance on the conflict.

With a potential ceasefire underway between Israel and Hamas, journalist and author Stanly Johny said that “any ceasefire dialogue at this point should be taken with a bit of salt.” 

In a session with journalist Mandira Nayar, Mr. Johny talked about his new book Original Sin: Israel, Palestine and the Revenge of Old West Asia, where he delved deep into issues that included the current state of the Palestinian conflict, his experiences as a journalist covering these events, and India’s stand on the conflict. 

“We have to keep in mind that even if there is a ceasefire, this is going to be a temporary one because Israel does not have any plan to withdraw from Gaza because they already have a presence in two corridors one being the Rafah corridor which is on the border with Egypt, and in Northern Gaza which is now destroyed. This clearly shows that the conflict in Gaza is not going to be resolved anytime soon,” he said.

Mr. Johny shared his experiences of travelling in the area and witnessing the travails of locals in the West Bank and went on to talk about the larger questions the current conflict raises.

“I called the book The Revenge of West Asia because the Palestine question is the central question of West Asia. It is a moral question of our times. Look at the numbers... around 45,000 people were killed in Gaza in the last 13 months, 1,00,000 people have been injured, and the entire population of Gaza has been turned into refugees. At this point there is practically no livable building standing unless it is controlled by the Israeli military.” 

He further pointed out how despite international organisations like Amnesty International and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) calling out Israel for committing genocide, big powers have been mostly completely silent. “From the occupation to the latest war, if you look at it from any dimension, you can clearly see that this is an important moral question which is not being addressed deeply by the world powers.” 

Over the months several journalists have been killed while trying to report on the issue, while others have been left with a deep psychological impact. “While reporting we try to detach from what’s happening, but it’s still very difficult when you see this kind of human suffering that happens on both sides.”