PALESTINE, A QUESTION OF JUSTICE

When this week US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Sultan of Sokoto (and later President Muhammadu Buhari), he spoke about the most current topic for his country and ours – terrorism. And he talked well, not only about Boko Haram and Al Shabab, Africa’s share of ‘global terrorism’, but also about ISIS International. […]

When this week US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Sultan of Sokoto (and later President Muhammadu Buhari), he spoke about the most current topic for his country and ours – terrorism. And he talked well, not only about Boko Haram and Al Shabab, Africa’s share of ‘global terrorism’, but also about ISIS International. But there was one topic Kerry didn’t talk about – the one topic that almost all Western leaders from US President Barack Obama to the last and least of them – are always shy of and never talk about, The Palestinian Question.
If there is a root cause for the so-called ‘original’ terrorism unleashed by Al Qa’ida in the Middle East culminating in 911, that cause is Palestine, pure and simple. And the world knows that. The injustice of Israel against Palestine is a hush-hush subject; in fact it is no subject at the United Nations or the European Union or anywhere else – especially now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has completed his thorough intimidation and humiliation of Obama, which the former has been at with the latter for a good eight years.
The whole world had thought Obama – seen as intelligent, black, with Muslim relatives – would be able to call off the bluff of Netanyahu. This thought was further driven home when Obama addressed the Muslim World in his epochal speech in Cairo – that speech from which the only thing we can now remember is the ringing “Assalamu Alaikum!”
Here in Africa, we are sometimes so docile to think that the US – and other Western types – think non-Arab Muslims have no business with Palestine, or Jerusalem, or Al Aqsa Mosque, and that’s why they do not talk about it to us. However, the same is true even when the West addresses Arabs; it dresses them down by ordering them to declare Palestinian liberation group HAMAS a terrorist organisation, and to recognise Israel as a legitimate partner in the Middle East – lo and behold, like magic, it worked!
That’s why it’s painful to remember what happened on New Year’s Eve 2014; the shocker that Nigeria, of all countries, at the United Nations (UN) in far-away New York, betrayed the long-suffering Palestinian people. We narrated the story on this Column titled “Not In My Name!” The story ran: ‘A last-minute decision by Nigeria to abstain from voting at the United Nations (UN) Security Council…helped defeat a resolution calling for an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory by 2017. A ‘yes’ vote would have paved the way to compel Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip which dated back to1967…The Palestinians needed nine votes in the 15-member Security Council. France, Russia, China, Luxembourg, Argentina, Chad, Chile and Jordan voted in favour…one vote was needed…at the crucial moment, Nigeria’s envoy Joy Ogwu, abstained, and another Palestinian dream was aborted.” Such reasons are what will keep the topic of Palestine a recurrent decimal, until justice is won.
So on that note, a couple of weeks ago in Kano, Palestine came up again at an international conference organised by the Centre for the Promotion of Shari’ah (CPS) in collaboration with Jama’atut Tajdid al Islamy (JTI) and the Afro-Middle East Centre, based in South Africa. Themed “The Palestinian Question: Issues, Challenges and Actions,” the conference attracted intellectuals from Nigeria, the UK and South Africa, including Dr. Azzam Shukri Tamimi, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Hiwar TV in the UK, who spoke on ‘Mapping the Palestinian Resistance” and Shaikh Aminu Aliyu Gusau, Chairman, Shari’ah Research and Documentation Commission of Zamfara State, who spoke on the thematic topic “Way Forward on the Palestinian Question.”
Other contributors included Shaikh Engineer Basheer Adamu Aliyu who did an interesting comparative analysis of the Palestinian and Nigerian educational accomplishments which showed, despite all the odds and the challenges, Palestinians have one of the highest rates globally. The Opening Remarks were by Sarkin Kano Muhammad Sanusi II who wondered why, in this 21st Century when Western nations go about human rights and international law with such forceful conviction, the Palestinian Question has defied any Answer.
In his paper, “History and Origins of the Palestinian Question”, Prof. Isa Muhammad Maishanu of the Department of Islamic Studies at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, concluded that: “It is clear the Palestinian problem is one of the oldest humanitarian crisis that humanity has failed and is unwilling to solve. It is a pathetic problem of defenseless and weak people massacred and sent out of their towns and villages where their great-great-fathers have lived since time immemorial due to the cruelty, greed oppression and lack of respect for the rights of the weak…”
Contributing, Dr. Na’eem Jeenah, Executive Director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, South Africa, said: “The importance of the Palestinian issue goes beyond the horrific images we witness on our TV screens and the orgy of bloodshed we witness every couple of years. As crucial as it is to work for the end of such gross violations of human rights, we also have to situate the Palestinian issue within a broader context, within the context of the violation of international law; within the context of colonialism, occupation and apartheid…”
Speaking on “Creation of Israel and International Law”, Prof. Yusuf Dankofa of the Department of Public Law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said: “Israel has significantly violated the human rights of the Palestinian people within Israel with its legalised apartheid system of discrimination and in the occupied territories with its system of political oppression, economic exploitation and inhuman law enforcement practices…”
At the end of the conference, delegates recommended to the African Union (AU) that it must reject the application of Israel to seek observer status in the organisation because primarily as it has no stake; that the United States should copy some European countries (such as France and Luxembourg, for example, that voted for Palestine in 2014) by calling the bluff of Israel; and that the United Nations, which is always in a hurry to implement its Resolutions, must now come round to implementing the various Resolutions it passed on the Palestinian issue and which have never seen the light of day.
Further, participants recommended that there should be created a Nigerian support-base for the Palestinian cause that should involve non-Muslims as a matter of human rights as is obtained in the West; that there should be increased enlightenment by all Islamic and rights-based organisations about the Palestinian cause among the Muslims in particular and among Nigerians in general; and that the  Palestinian problem should be seen as a common problem of all oppressed people of the world and especially of Muslims.
Turning to Nigeria, the conference appreciated the statement of President Muhammadu Buhari not too long ago in Doha, Qatar, restating Nigeria’s support for the Palestinian cause, in contrast to the country’s 2014 decision of abandoning Palestine at the UN; and that Muslims and Islamic organisations in Nigeria should learn from the Palestinians and accord priority attention to education and social services in order to overcome the multifarious challenges facing them.
Finally, as one, on this Palestine Question, delegates asked another question: “mata nasrul Lah?”