17th
May, 2021
PRESS RELEASE:
MURIC CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S
STATE TERRORISM
The Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC) has condemned the ongoing bombardment of Palestine by
Israel’s war planes and artillery. The group described the attacks as crimes
against humanity.
The position of
MURIC was revealed in a press statement issued on Monday, 17th May,
2021 by its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
According to
MURIC, “We strongly condemn the ongoing aggression of Israel against Palestine.
A people that does not possess a single war plane is being harassed, killed and
dehumanised by an apartheid state that is armed to the teeth while the world
looks on carelessly.
“Israel’s war
planes are carrying out bombing raids on Gaza and other Palestinian cities.
Whole blocks of flats and civilian tower buildings are being sunk to ground
zero. The occupants perish with no hope of being rescued. The Palestinians have
no single war plane. They have no standing army.
“The United Nations have failed to stop Israel’s aggression because
America and other Western powers are always there to veto UN resolutions. The
UN had never been fair in its dealings with Palestine. The Palestinians who
owned 92% of the land were given only 47% by the 1947 United Nations
misadventure thereby rendering 472,000 Palestinians homeless. Since then it has
been killings, massacres and displacements with the Palestinians always being
at the receiving end.
“We are
particularly disenchanted with the role of America in the whole issue. In 2019 alone for example, the US provided $3.8 billion
in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $8 billion
of loan guarantees. The United States (US) allows Israel to build a nuclear
weapon but hypocritically breathes down the neck of Israel’s neighbours on the
issue of nuclear energy. In as much as the US is Israel’s major supplier and
backer, the US has the power to stop Israel’s aggression against Palestine.
“That is why we condemn in the strongest terms the
statement made by President Joe Biden that Israel has the right to defend
itself. That statement was reckless and irresponsible. It was a statement that
endorsed Israel’s aggression against Palestine and it exposed the insincerity
of the US in its so called search for a two-state solution to the Middle East
imbroglio.
“We ask Joe Biden, is the forceful eviction of Palestinians from their
homes part of Israel’s right to defend itself? Is the demolition of Palestinian
civilian houses by Israel’s bulldozers part of Israel’s right to defend itself?
Are the historical bloody massacres of Palestinians part of Israel’s right to
self-defence?
“Even Nigeria
under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan played an ignoble role in the Palestinian
question. The request to officially recognize Palestine as a state within the
1967 boarders with full UN member benefits and state status throughout the
international community was presented by Jordan on 30th December
2014. While justice-seeking countries like Argentina, Chad, Chile, Jordan,
China, France and Russia voted ‘Yes’ to a Palestinian State, Nigeria dashed the
hope of Palestine by abstaining.
“Just nine votes
were mandatory for Palestine to secure the status it needed and eight had been
obtained. Only one more vote was needed but Nigeria reneged on its well-known anti-apartheid
stance. It was a shocking, conservative and reactionary shift from
anti-apartheid champion status for which the country was known to a pro-zionist
entity. It was the coup de grace. It was the day Nigeria shamefully turned
its back on its principles of justice, liberty and humanity, no thanks to ex-President
Jonathan’s love for anything that may hurt Muslims and favour Christians. Jonathan
cannot wash his hands off that diplomatic misadventure. He allowed his
religious sentiment to get the better of him.
“This is the parochial and uninformed angle from which many Nigerians
look at the Palestine-Israel affair. But this matter has nothing to do with
religion. Many Christians wrongly assume that the Jews are Christians but the
reverse is the case. In fact there are more Christians among the Palestinians
than among the Israelis. It is therefore more of a human right matter, a matter
of conscience. What is happening between Israel and Palestine is that
conscienceless power is subjugating powerless conscience.
“We call on the
Nigerian government to condemn Israel’s crime against humanity. Nigeria has always been known for its principled
stand on international issues. This great African country confronted the
apartheid regime of South Africa until it was brought to its knees. Nigeria was also at the forefront of the
struggle to liberate Rhodesia, Zimbabwe and Angola from the clutches of
apartheid and colonialism. This country must rise again to its traditional role
of being the voice of the voiceless on the African continent before it loses
its respect in the commity of nations.
“It will be
recalled that this new crisis started when Palestinian Muslims were observing Ramadan
evening (tarawih) prayers inside the al-Aqsa mosque and Israeli soldiers came
shooting sporadically to disperse them. We assert that Israel is not defending
itself. On the contrary, the Zionist state is on a mission to wipe out the Palestinians
from the face of the earth. Israel is preparing for a ground invasion to claim
more Palestian land after which it will refuse to withdraw.
“It is simply state terrorism. It is ethnic cleansing. It is crime
against humanity. Israel’s superior firepower may seem to be winning but
posterity will not forgive aggressors.
“By endorsing
Israel’s reckless onslaught against the Palestinians and by failing to bring
its influence to bear on Israel when it matters most, America has lost the moral
right to talk to the rest of the world about human rights and civil liberties. Thus
the US has proclaimed the absence of justice in the world. We affirm that peace
will continue to elude the world because although everybody keeps talking of
peace but none is talking about justice. We hold America responsible for the
cold-blooded killing of thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians, including
vulnerable women and children.
Professor Ishaq
Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC)
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