By Devendra Gautam

How time flies! One year has already passed since October 7 but wounds continue to fester. On that day, a Hamas attack on the Gaza Strip killed more than 1100 people, including 10 Nepali students, and saw the capture of 250, including a young Nepali student, Vipin Joshi.

The status of Joshi, among many other captives, remains unknown to this date.

The Israel-Hamas war in the Mideast has only widened and deepened since then, with lasting and devastating consequences. The toll includes the loss of more than 11000 human lives, mainly in southern Lebanon, with the intensification of Israel’s operation against Hezbollah.

Even as tenuous peace holds in the larger Mideast despite a widening war and a deepening humanitarian crisis, latest developments like increasing hostilities between Israel and Iran and the former’s raids on the bases of the United Nations’ Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) offer hapless humanity, caught in wars and conflicts around the world, little respite.

Per reports, five peacekeepers of the 9500-strong UNIFIL have sustained injuries in recent attacks after Israel’s announcement of ‘limited incursions’ into the war-torn country.

For those who have forgotten the significance of UNIFIL, a reminder: The force was created in March 1978 to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese government in restoring its effective authority in the area,

These raids, which come barely a year after the loss of 10 Nepali lives in the Hamas attack and the disappearance of a student, should alert our government. This is because Nepal, as a significant contributor to the United Nations’ global peacekeeping missions, has troops deployed also under the umbrella of UNIFIL since its founding days.

What’s more, a widening war should be a matter of serious concern for Nepal as the Mideast is home to a sizable number of Nepali migrant workers. The safety and security of these workers should be a topmost priority for a government wearing that federal secular democratic tag. Needless to say, a full-blown crisis in the Mideast will have severe ramifications for an economy that remains afloat on remittances.

As a founding member of the Non-aligned Movement, as an abode of peace and a member of the United Nations, this Shangri-La has some international responsibilities as well.

As the birthplace of Gautam Buddha and several other enlightened beings that have led humanity towards light from darkness, and towards knowledge and wisdom from ignorance, Nepal should lead an international appeal requesting the warring parties not to target the keepers of a fragile global peace, and not to have peace in their crosshairs.

This is because wars offer no solution to daunting problems facing the world. As Bertrand Russel says: War doesn’t determine who is right — only who is left.

Our holy scriptures like the Veds sing the glory of peace and the virtue of living together in perfect harmony with fellow humans and Nature.

A heavy responsibility lies with the current administration ruling this spiritual land of multiple faiths like Kirat, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shaivism, Bon and animism to take firm steps for global peace by seeking to bring all warring sides together.

How about taking diplomatic initiatives for hosting a global peace summit in Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha and other enlightened beings, to begin with?

For a government caught in a perpetual geopolitical and geostrategic bind as if its internal contradictions were not enough, this may be asking for too much. But diplomacy is the art of the impossible and the impossible is nothing, right?

The time has come for Nepal to practice some really serious, some really imaginative and innovative diplomacy, something it has not done for decades.

Let Vijaya Dashami, which marks the victory of good over evil, inspire us all to end this madness called war, once and for all. Let peace prevail on Earth and in the high heavens.

 

Source : https://www.peoplesreview.com.np/2024/10/22/toward-global-peace/