KARACHI: Department of International Relations of the University of Karachi organized and hosted its 6th seminar under the Sheikh Mutahir Ahmed Lecture Series.
The event, titled, The Middle East Crisis, and held at the KU’s Chinese Teachers Memorial Auditorium. The IR scholars and experts enlightened the audience with insightful knowledge and first-hand information from the speakers.
The theme of the seminar encompassed the war zone “Gaza” and also the neighboring areas of the occupied land of Palestine.
The speakers spoke about the historic Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its present shape, and the current Iranian strikes on Israel and the repercussions it may have in the region and elsewhere.
The former Ambassador Dr. Jamil Ahmed shed light upon the Israeli ideology of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
He engaged the audience to reflect on Israel’s involvement in the Palestinian lands. He emphasized that majorly, diplomacy works as a weapon to end wars.
He said that the world wars ended with treaties which itself is proof of the role that diplomacy plays.
Jamil Ahmed referred to the historic meeting of 1897 in Switzerland, where the idea of a Zionist Movement and Greater Israel first emerged. He also explained how the Israeli agendas and political participation in international politics influence decisions and actions worldwide.
Another speaker, Air Commodore (Retd) Jamal Hussain, who is a defense analyst, spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict concerning Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. He pointed out that the military and political objectives of Israel have compelled her to initiate and stay in the war for about a year now.
Jamal Hussain added some technicalities depicting his expertise in the area of war studies that Israel’s air war capabilities do not very well pay off. This, he mentioned, is because Palestinians (Hammas and Hezbollah) possess greater capabilities and practices of conventional warfare (ground operations) than Israel fails to possess.
A renowned journalist Tariq Abul Hassan, known for his news coverage and first-hand information from the conflict zones, also enlightened the participants of the conference with his experiences while covering the Israeli-Palestinian war.
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He shared with the audience the challenges he and his colleagues had to face while covering the conflict. He told how he had seen journalists being fired and shot dead even when they did not violate the parameters of journalism and were trying to show the world the atrocities of Israel.
