Civil Society Coalition Condemns Attacks on Gaza, Calls for Global Intervention in Hamas-Israeli Conflict

Sunday Okobi

The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CCSO) in Nigeria yesterday condemned what it described as “the ongoing genocidal attacks by the Israeli army against defenseless civilians in Gaza among them women and children with number of casualties continues to rise.”

The group at a World Press Conference held in Ikeja, Lagos, vowed to stand with the people and freedom of Palestine.

While speaking with THISDAY on the sideline, one of the leaders of the groups and the General Secretary of United Action for Democracy, Mr. Kunle Wizeman-Ajayi, insinuated that the Hamas-Israeli war might have a dimension in Nigeria.

According to him, “Any war can affect the world in one way of another, and that’s why we are in support of the freedom of Palestine. The battle between Hamas and Israel has a global effect, and you can see it today that it is even a debate in Nigeria already because the Israeli apartheid is pseudo-attached to Christianity, and there are several Christians in Nigeria, and many Muslims in Nigeria don’t understand the battle Palestine is fighting, because if they support the freedom of Palestine, they should also support the freedom of Biafra in Nigeria.

“Also, if Christians in Nigeria, especially those in the Southeast, support the freedom of Biafra, they should also support the freedom of Palestine. So freedom does not have any religious connotation. So freedom is freedom because we are all human. This can become a global war, and once that happens, just like in the Second World War, soldiers would be taken away from Nigeria to fight. Many would become soldiers by force just like our grandparents did during the Second World War. So we must nip any war in the bud before it becomes global just like we did in Niger Republic.

“American President, Joe Biden, wanted to force ECOWAS to start a war in that country, but because Nigerians rose against it, by now, we would have been in war. So because we stop the French occupation of Niger Republic, we, Nigeria, Africa, and the world should also rise against the occupation of Palestine by Israel.”

The other civil society coalition leaders, including Omotaje Olawale Saint of Work Bond International Network (WIN); Ahmed Balogun of Frontline Socio-Economic Research Centre (FSERC); Alex Omotehinse of Centre for Human and Socio-Economic Rights, among many others, while addressing journalists, declared that the death of over 500 Palestinians “in a single Israeli strike at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital south of Gaza on October 17, 2023, is a case of crimes against humanity that the ICC must investigate and hold Israel accountable.

“It was the Israeli army that asked Palestinians in Gaza to flee to a safe corridor. It is therefore reprehensible and callous for Israel to carpet-bomb the same place it chose as a safe haven for people fleeing its destruction in one part of Gaza. The bombing clearly attests to deliberate and well-coordinated crime against humanity.”

They added that the attempt by the duo of Israeli Prime Minister,Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President Biden “to exonerate Israel of the bombing in hospital is shameful and condemnable. The argument that the bombing at the hospital was due to self-explosion is deceptive and a conspiracy in genocidal mission.

“President Biden cannot walk back his talk. His promise to provide everything Netanyahu needed to prosecute this genocide is on record. The president shall answer to crime against humanity at the appropriate time. His refusal to call for a ceasefire and his open green-lighting of Israel’s premeditated genocidal mission are now well-documented.”

The coalition further affirmed that “as an occupied people Palestinians have the right to resistance which they continue to muster despite their backs being against the wall. Palestinians are not fighting just Israel, they have been fighting a rogue superpower which is America. We salute their courage and their refusal to be bullied into silence

“The world must rise to help Palestinians reclaim their rights, their dignity, their humanity; they must be free to determine their own destiny; create their own political institutions; establish a viable and sovereign state; and live in peace.

“Our prayer is that the United Nations must prevail on Israel to halt its war crimes by calling for a ceasefire. It should as a matter of urgency reclaim the peace process and take it away from the monopoly of the United States and European Union

“Other nations of the world, from the Arab World to Turkey and China, must invest in the peace process to end US monopoly.

“Governments of the world must begin to isolate Israel as the pariah that it has become. In this vein, all justice-loving countries and peoples of the world must patronise the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and take appropriate action.”