Polio in Gaza, another variant of the “Zionist virus”

Imagine you are a United Nations agent standing at the Rafah border, beside refrigerators full of medicine. You gaze in despair across the border at a place where, in just eleven months of war, over 16,000 children have been bombed, and basic necessities like water, electricity, fuel, food, and medicine have been cut off. You are waiting for permission to enter the city and provide aid to its people. But who must grant that permission? The very force responsible for inflicting all this suffering, the one that, above the international law, dictates what everyone can and cannot do. A UN agent who has voluntarily made it to the Gaza border has likely faced numerous challenges just to get this far. But now, they are overwhelmed by a feeling that can only be described as “paralysis.” You are a person with the will to act, and everything suggests you have the resources to do so, yet you are unable to move forward.

This hypothetical UN agent may be seen as a metaphor for the United Nations and similar international bodies tasked with enforcing international law but are seemingly unable to “exercise their will.” This inability isn’t due to a sudden damage or a tragic accident, but rather a result of the organization’s political paralysis, which began in its infancy when it was infected by the “Zionist virus.” In 1947, when it was only two years old, the UN fell under the influence of American and Zionist lobbies, leading to the partition of Palestine and, two years later, the recognition of Israel as a state. Like the polio virus, Zionists rendered the young United Nations a motionless entity that only moves at the will of its handlers. Without their guidance, it cannot protect itself or uphold the values it was created to defend.

This elderly ill body now looks across the border to Gaza, where, after eleven months of a medical blockade and the destruction of healthcare infrastructure, the first cases of polio have been reported. This virus had been eradicated for about 25 years thanks to global vaccination efforts, but now it has reemerged, hand in hand with the “Zionist virus,” paralyzing the bodies of Palestinian children. After years of disease spreading deep into its core, the United Nations is left with only the ability to cry out and plead for help. The UN Secretary-General has spoken about the urgent need to halt the conflict in order to begin widespread vaccination of Gaza’s children, emphasizing that this requires immediate and coordinated action. However, the Zionist virus has become so dominant that it ignores these pleas. Even after the announcement of the virus’s resurgence, the Zionist regime, by ordering the evacuation of over 89% of Gaza’s area, has confined more than two million displaced people of Gaza within just 11% of the strip’s territory, and after bombing areas in Deir al-Balah, it destroyed 10 freshwater wells. In another report, Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia in northern Gaza announced that it will cease its operations due to a lack of fuel.

Over the past eleven months, the Zionist regime has set a new standard for war crimes and blatant disregard for international laws. During this time, it has carried out around 3,500 mass killings, which is shocking enough on its own. But these acts have been accompanied by the systematic destruction of healthcare centers, medical facilities, and energy infrastructure. Since the beginning of the assault on Gaza, this regime has shut down over 30 hospitals and severely damaged more than 240 healthcare facilities, 80 of which are now effectively out of service. The regime has also destroyed 3,000 kilometers of power grid and 700 water wells, creating conditions ripe for disease outbreaks. Today, it watches these results with satisfaction. Meanwhile, international organizations have only managed to send a few volunteer doctors into Gaza, and humanitarian aid has been unable to enter without approval from the Zionists.

But is there no solution? History shows that just as the collective human effort finally eradicated polio in 1999 and the resilient people of South Africa saw the end of apartheid, the paralyzing Zionist virus can also be eliminated from the earth once and for all. Eradicating this virus will not only end its effects on the Palestinian people but will also benefit the world at large. The determination needed to remove this virus from international organizations and interactions could become a powerful force for achieving the rights of oppressed people everywhere, with the Palestinians standing to gain the most. However, the painful memory of the crimes committed by this virus, while world powers have remained inactive and merely observant, will linger in people’s minds for years to come. One of the most accurate descriptions of the Zionist regime’s virus-like nature was given by Imam Khamenei in his Al-Quds Day speech in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic: “Today, the world is counting one by one every victim of the coronavirus across the globe, but nobody has asked who is responsible for all these crimes and for the occupation, destruction and oppression in Palestine? Why didn’t anyone count the millions of oppressed children, women and men in the world of Islam? Why doesn’t anyone extend their condolences for the mass murder of Muslims? Today the coronavirus is a reality and yet all wise people agree that it is necessary to fight it. Undoubtedly, the long-lasting virus of Zionism will not last much longer, and it will be uprooted thanks to the determination, faith and pride of the youth.”