Activist cautions Christians against supporting Israel

A lawyer and human rights activist, Ogaga Ifowodo, yesterday said anyone supporting Israel in the ongoing war with Palestine is oblivious of history because Hamas was a product of the age-long “grave injustice” done to the Palestinians. He also cautioned Christians against siding with Israel on a religious basis, saying it is not a war […]

A lawyer and human rights activist, Ogaga Ifowodo, yesterday said anyone supporting Israel in the ongoing war with Palestine is oblivious of history because Hamas was a product of the age-long “grave injustice” done to the Palestinians.

He also cautioned Christians against siding with Israel on a religious basis, saying it is not a war between Christianity and Islam.

Ifowodo, who spoke on the AIT Kakaaki programme monitored by our correspondent, pointed out that the Palestinians had been driven to desperation after their lands were forcefully taken over and they were conscripted to a tiny Gaza strip.

He said, “A lot of people who are speaking are speaking purely on religious reasons, they say Israel is a Christian State or at least a holy land but it is a holy land both for the Jews and the Arabs. In any case, Israel is not a dominantly Christian country, their religion is Judaism.

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“So when Nigerian Christians on a knee-jerk reaction said they are supporting Israel because it is a Christian country they don’t even understand that it is not a Christian country.

“Two, you can’t be a child of God really and say that God promised a land belonging to some of his children. We had to examine some of these things because of biblical literalism believing in everything in the bible as a literal truth that is unchangeable whereas if you subject some of the claims in the bible to scrutiny, you find out that nobody lives today according to them.”

“Nobody lives for instance according to the scripture in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and all of those strict commands, nobody lives according to them. So that is why they said the New Testament. We need even a newer Testament. But leaving all those things aside, we are talking about human beings who were created by God.

“So if they were created by God, they were placed on that land, they were there in 1948, you were not there occupying the land in 1948 and then you came and drove them away, drove them into exile and banished them to the tiniest portion on the land and put them in prison where you superintend over them. They can’t come in or go out without you. Then how is that anything just in the eyes of anybody in the world who believes in humanity, peace and progress?”

The activist noted that successive American governments have been hampered in tackling the Israel-Palestine crisis because of what he called, the “Jewish Lobby” which is very sturdy to break.