Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
Truth must never be treated as a moral luxury by high-profile activists or academics. In a world overfed with shameless diplomacy and endless declarations on rights and doctrines, there are still people and platforms who believe that honesty is the best policy and humanity is the common faith. For them, silence is not neutrality but complicity, and they write and speak not to comfort but to confront. These simple truths are survival tools for the oppressed and tests for the rest of us.
I noted my thoughts after going through some reports that should be disturbing, extremely disturbing, for all of us who claim to see ourselves as social development experts, torchbearers of human rights, feminists, and all such fancy titles.
First, two reports from different UN agencies released in June and July 2025 have uncovered brutal facts about Gaza and Palestine. The technical Gaza Health Collapse Report by the World Health Organization(WHO) confirms the humanitarian catastrophe:
1. Only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functional, and none are fully operational.
2. Over 37,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians, have been killed.
3. 1.2 million children face famine-level hunger.
4. More than 300 health professionals—surgeons, midwives, paramedics have been killed.
5. The healthcare system has been “systematically dismantled,” according to WHO emergency director Dr. Michael Ryan.
These statistics are the evidence of the architecture of annihilation.
Moral Limits of Those with Clout #GenocideinGaza by -Dr.Rakhshinda Perveen
Second, “From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide” by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has exposed a chilling truth: genocide is not just ideological; it is profitable. Over 85,000 tons of explosives more than six times the payload dropped on Hiroshima have been unleashed on Gaza. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange gained $225.7 billion, with $67.8 billion in just one month.
Albanese writes: “One people enriched, one people erased.” The report names global corporations—Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Microsoft, Barclays, Palantir, Caterpillar, BlackRock, and BNP Paribas as profiteers in a genocidal economy. Albanese asserts: “Genocide is fueled not just by hatred but by greed, by states and corporations whose profits are tied to the destruction of a people.”
As if this was not enough, July ended with another alarm, or rather, a bombshell: “Israel Is Committing Genocide,” a joint report by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. This is not the language of outsiders. It is a principled reckoning from within.
Yuli Novak, a former soldier, author, mother, and Executive Director of B’Tselem, declared: “Nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide.”
Guy Shalev, a medical and political anthropologist and Director of PHR–Israel, added: “Based on a careful legal analysis, we state with a heavy heart: this is genocide.
Their joint appearance on Christiane Amanpour’s CNN show on July 30, 2025 has already been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube. I watched it on YouTube in stillness, and futile tears rolled from my eyes.
Their findings record the systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system, the methodical blocking of medical evacuations, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Their evidence meets the legal definition of genocide under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention: “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
And still, the most unbearable quietness comes not from the usual imperial suspects but from the so-called Muslim world. The jubilations here continued. Why did Eid celebrations proceed while Gaza burned? Why did majoritarian Muslim states fail to even pause, let alone protest, the way Westerners and non Muslims protest?
Pakistan Strongly Condemns Israel’s Illegal Annexation Attempt in the Occupied West Bank
Aside from some scattered civil society demonstrations in Muslim countries, most governments offered no more than half hearted symbolic solidarity. I am short of words to comment on the “support by omission.” Business over brotherhood dominated all religious teachings and moral virtues. How could anyone with a living heart and soul even if not Muslim excuse this?
You cannot claim to revere the Prophet (SAW) of mercy while ignoring mothers screaming over the bodies of their children in Khan Younis. Can solidarity be a seasonal gesture? How come Justice is only a hashtag? Can Humanity be deferred to the next news cycle? How long will we scroll through stories that are too painful to communicate, consoling ourselves with four quick button presses -performative piety wrapped in politicized silence?
To speak truth in the face of genocide is the bare minimum. To act on it is the obligation. Human rights cannot be contingent on citizenship or color. If you benefit from systems that dehumanize others economically, culturally, or politically, your silence is complicity. There are no excuses left. Not one.
When will we read these reports with eyes that are windows to our souls? When shall we share them without fear of being cancelled, blacklisted for our next job interview, or sabotaged by powerful platforms?
Let us accept the truth we are slaves to sordid economic boons and reluctant to discuss them in our homes, schools, mosques, churches, temples, parliaments, and protests. We may boycott some products, but we cannot boycott corporations profiting from this horror, and we know the consequences of demanding action from our leaders. We are worried about visas and the next invitation to a prominent capital.
I am also a weak person and cannot refuse all, shame any publicly. I feel embarrassed. I know honesty and humanity are not abstract values but should be part of our daily choices. And in this moment of historic violence, they are also the line between life and death.
May Allah forgive me and all of us who are shattered within but cannot take a vivid stand. Huge respect for all irrespective of nationality, racial identity, and faith who have opted to speak out what we all knew but could not utter:
In other words: Israel is committing genocide.
The author is a Pakistani Intersectional feminist, and a freethinker, and can be reached at @Apna_Wallet.
