THOUSANDS of Muslims last Saturday stormed Ojota Park in Lagos to protest against the United Nations’ failure to take action and stop what they tagged the ongoing “carnage” in Palestine.
The 50,000-man rally, organised by the Conference of Islamic Organisations (CIO), was attended by members of various Islamic groups, civil society organisations and human rights activists.
The crowd condemned Israel’s onslaught on “the oppressed Palestinians” in Gaza Strip.
The rally was also held between Ojota and Odo Iya Alaro with the participants displaying placards bearing inscriptions like ‘UN now a toothless organisation’; ‘America: stop arming Israeli terrorists’; ‘Israel, stop killing women and children’; ‘Stop the bloodshed in Gaza’; ‘End Israel apartheid now’; ‘Good people of America must stop Joe Biden’s collaboration with killers’; ‘Bombing of churches and mosques is a war crime’; and ‘Stop ethnic cleansing in Palestine’.
The groups demanded that the Nigerian government put on hold all diplomatic relations with Israel until the two-state resolution is achieved.
Reading the resolution of the gathering, the Dean, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto and Adviser to the Vice Chancellor of Afro-Asian University, Somalia, Professor Isa Maishanu, said the Pan-Nigerian Front for the Support of Palestine demanded the international community led by the United Nations to prevail on Israel to cease its bombing of Gaza and other areas, a situation which, according to him, has brought horror not just to the Palestinians but to the world.
Professor Maishanu said: “The United Nations should lead efforts at creating humanitarian corridors and ensuring that aid and relief packages have access into Gaza and other places. Any interim peace process must, as a matter of necessity, incorporate the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
“We consider as irresponsible, reprehensible and barbaric the show of support by the duo of the United States and the European Union for Israel and we hold them complicit and culpable in this human tragedy happening before the global audience.
“The International Criminal Court (ICC) should commence a prosecution of the war crimes committed by Israel, taking into consideration its violation of all extant international laws, including failure to protect the people under its occupation as written in the Geneva Convention.”
The group affirmed that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation but a group of elected representatives of the people engaged in arms insurrection against an occupying force as allowed by international law, rationality and necessity.
“The international community led by the UN must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States which has become part of the Israeli occupation machinery. The world must work to bring Israel to the two-state solution, compel it to halt settlement building and lift its siege of Gaza,” he said.
The umbrella body for various organisations called on the Arab League, the African Union, and other regional governments to exert pressure that will change the apartheid character of the Zionist state of Israel and make it conform to international laws and norms.
“We sound the note of warning to Arab States who have normalised or are hoping to normalise ties with Israel to halt forthwith as this is the credential that Israel needed to wipe out Palestine as its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear in his speech at the recent United Nations General Assembly,” CIO said.
The group encouraged the global audience horrified by “this genocide being committed by Israel to boycott all Israeli products and those of its affiliates.”
A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria and Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, condemned “the continuous attacks on the Palestinians, especially children, women, disabled as well and aged people who have been brutally murdered as a result of the conflict.”
According to him, “Amnesty International continues to demand justice and accountability and peaceful resolution of the problem today in Gaza. This conflict has been going on unabated due to lack of political will at the global level to stop Israel.”
He noted that Amnesty International and other civil society organisations in Nigeria are solemnly behind the voiceless, oppressed and innocent Palestinians that have been killed.
“We call on the global world to initiate a genuine process of dialogue that will end this conflict. It is important that this conflict is resolved in the interest of peace, justice and human rights,” he said.
The Mufti of CIO, Sheikh Dhikrullah Shafi’, stated that from the look of things, Israel has crossed the red line of international laws and should be brought to book by the UN.
He commended past presidents of Nigeria for standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to speak on behalf of the oppressed Palestinians.
“Our hope is from Allah and that Palestine will surely succeed. People all over the world rallied to condemn the Israel’s barbaric attack,” he said.
The chairman of the Council of Muslim Scholars in Nigeria, Sheikh Abdul Fatai Thanni, said Nigeria Muslims came together to show concern and sympathy for the people of Palestine.
He called on the leadership of the Western world to intervene and let peace reign.
A senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, Professor Tajudeen Yusuf, called on the UN to treat nations equally.
He chided the organisation for its gfailure to curb the long-time oppression of Palestinians.
“Every human being should be treated with dignity. That is the only way peace can be restored in the world,” he said.
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