At the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan delivered one of the most forceful and morally charged addresses of the session. His speech cut through diplomatic ambiguity and laid bare an uncomfortable truth: the world’s silence on Gaza and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is not neutrality — it is complicity. Both territories, he argued, are enduring systematic campaigns of oppression, ethnic cleansing, and denial of fundamental rights, and the failure to act threatens not just the people living there but the credibility of the international system itself.
Sharif did not mince words in describing Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza. Calling it a “systematic slaughter” and “an assault on the very essence of human life and dignity,” he underscored the scale and gravity of the crisis. Nearly a year after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack — which killed around 1,200 Israelis — Israel’s response has been devastatingly disproportionate. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Almost the entire 2.3 million population has been displaced, a catastrophic hunger crisis is unfolding, and accusations of genocide are now before the International Court of Justice — allegations that Israel denies.
Sharif’s language was deliberate and pointed: “The blood of Gazan children stains not just the hands of the oppressors but also those complicit in prolonging this cruel conflict.” It was a reminder that the suffering in Gaza is not just the result of Israeli policy but of a broader failure of international will. His call for an immediate ceasefire, accountability for war crimes, and Palestine’s admission as a full member of the United Nations was not mere rhetoric. It was a demand for the world to align its actions with its professed values. The two-state solution — a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel — remains the only viable path to peace, yet it continues to be undermined by Israeli settlement expansion, occupation policies, and the erosion of Palestinian territorial integrity.
From Gaza, Sharif shifted to another unresolved conflict: Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where the people have been denied their right to self-determination for over seven decades. Drawing a parallel between the two crises, he argued that “illegal occupation creates a fresh hell every day in the killing fields of Palestine and the pristine valleys of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
Sharif reminded the Assembly that UN Security Council resolutions explicitly call for a plebiscite in Kashmir, allowing its people to determine their political future. Yet India has not only failed to implement these resolutions but has actively moved away from them. Since August 5, 2019, when New Delhi unilaterally revoked Article 370 of its constitution — stripping Kashmir of its special status — the region has been transformed into one of the most militarised zones on Earth, with 900,000 troops deployed to enforce control.
Under this occupation, Kashmiris face prolonged curfews, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and mass abductions. New Delhi’s demographic engineering — seizing land and settling outsiders — aims to alter the region’s Muslim-majority character in what Sharif described as a “classic settler-colonial project.” Such tactics, he noted, “have always failed and shall fail in Kashmir too, by the grace of God.” The spirit of resistance remains unbroken, symbolised by figures like Burhan Wani, whose legacy continues to inspire defiance among Kashmiris.
Sharif also raised alarms about India’s expanding military capabilities and aggressive doctrines, including notions of a “surprise attack” and a “limited war under the nuclear overhang.” Coupled with frequent threats to cross the Line of Control, this posture destabilises the region and underscores the urgent need for dialogue. “Pakistan will respond decisively against any Indian aggression,” he warned, while reiterating Islamabad’s willingness to engage in talks — but only if India reverses its illegal August 5 measures and commits to a peaceful settlement in line with UN resolutions and Kashmiri aspirations.
What binds Gaza and Kashmir is not only their shared suffering but also the international community’s selective blindness. In both cases, the victims are predominantly Muslim populations living under occupation, and in both, powerful states invoke “complexity” as an excuse for inaction. This hypocrisy undermines the very foundations of the UN Charter, which commits member states to uphold human rights, self-determination, and international law. When these principles are applied selectively, they cease to have meaning.
The crises in Gaza and Kashmir are not local disputes; they are tests of the international order’s legitimacy. If the world continues to look away, it will not just betray two oppressed peoples — it will betray the very principles on which the United Nations was founded. The time for silence has long passed. The time for action is now.