Gaza burns, the world scrolls on: Where are Uganda’s voices of conscience?

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On October 7, 2023, the world watched in disbelief as armed Hamas fighters stormed out of their besieged enclave in what came to be known as the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

For much of the Global South, long in awe of Israel’s military prowess and world-renowned intelligence network, it felt like a scene ripped from a Hollywood blockbuster.

What followed was a wave of indiscriminate killings and hostage abductions. Many of the captives are still believed to be held somewhere in the Gaza Metro (underground city).

Since then, Gaza whose name in Hebrew, Azzah, means “strong city” has been reduced to rubble, along with many of its civilian inhabitants. Daily, they endure the relentless bombardment from Israeli airstrikes.

As of July 20, 2025, 59,220 Palestinians had been reported killed in the Gaza war, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Among the dead are 217 journalists, 120 academics and over 224 humanitarian aid workers.

Many more have been shot while simply trying to scavenge for food at distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

What breaks my heart most are the haunting images of infants, some in incubators, their tiny bodies reduced to skeletons from starvation and lack of baby formula.

I must say, if it weren’t for the resilience of doctors, working around the clock in rundown shelters to provide desperately needed treatment, I can hardly imagine how much worse the situation would be.

Make no mistake, Israel has the right to defend itself against any threat to its sovereignty. But it must do so within the bounds of international law and basic humanity. What we have witnessed instead, particularly over the past two years, is that most Western nations with the exception of Spain and Ireland have given Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government a virtual carte blanche to act as it pleases.

Even the United States of America, which has long positioned itself as a global champion of human rights, now finds itself in the crosshairs of contradiction. While it had no qualms about imposing a sweeping economic embargo on Cuba since 1959 over political disagreements, today it lacks the slightest resolve to even halt weapons shipments to Israel, despite clear evidence that those very weapons are killing and maiming the children.

It should not be overlooked that while the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has frequently condemned inhumane massacres, his government continues to export F-35 jet parts to Tel Aviv.

Earlier this year, a Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq based in the occupied West Bank, sought to challenge United Kingdom's Department for Business and Trade (DBT) through legal action. But courts ruled otherwise.

Save for a few activist platforms like the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Palestine Action, which has since been banned, many global citizens and governments have remained tone-deaf. A silence that seems only to have emboldened Israel’s genocidal intentions.

During the Vietnam War, leading Ugandan intellectuals like the late Prof. Dan Wadada Nabudere courageously spoke out, using platforms such as the Mbale-based Uganda Vietnam Solidarity Committee to pressure the United States over its aggression.

In stark contrast, today’s political elite and university graduates in Uganda appear more inclined to bury their heads in the sand. A casual scroll through social media platforms like X reveals a disturbing obsession with fleeting pleasures, music concerts and the accumulation of nouveau riche status.

This silence may stem from a fear of jeopardizing their prospects in the West, greener pastures, as they like to call it, anxiety over potential political ramifications for Uganda, or perhaps a belief that Gaza is simply an “Arab problem” not worth Uganda’s involvement.

While it's not entirely accurate to dismiss Gaza as distant or irrelevant. After all, it is home to over 11,000 Afro-Palestinians, many of whom lived in the Al-Jalla district prior to the war.

Leave that alone, it is also on record that the Palestinians, through the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by the late Yasser Arafat, stood in solidarity with Africa during its liberation struggles, most notably in the moral fight against apartheid. The images of the late Nelson Mandela wearing a kaffiyeh (scarf) are not accidental.

For argument’s sake, let’s assume it is true that Gaza is distant and we have nothing to do with it. Look around in conflict-ridden nations closer to home, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Somalia, and South Sudan, where have Uganda’s political elites and intellectuals raised their voices? Where are the noble acts of charity, the movements of solidarity or the calls to end the violence?

Who will stand with us when we never stood with them?

The time has come for all of us to find our courage and condemn evil.

The writer is a journalist