A trending video of a Palestinian man standing inside a dug grave in Gaza, cursing the Arab leaders for neglecting them during this trying time, caught my attention. The visage of the frustrated man arouses pity; he looked so fazed and pathetic that one is bent to question the rationale behind the lack of support for Palestine, still under the yoke of the Israeli jackboot of colonialism. The events of the last few months in the Middle East have exposed the hypocrisy of the Western leaders led by the U.S. and its allies and the Arab countries that abandoned their fellow Arabs.
The genocide in Palestine is referred to as the “Israel/Hamas war” by the western press and their hypocritical leaders. The troubling question is: Is the crisis really a war between Israel and Hamas? No, it is not, but rather an aggression by Israel against powerless Palestine. The concept of war denotes a situation in which the two opposing sides will be able to stand up against one another militarily. In this case, it is not; one is an organised state with a functioning government and is overtly supported by the superpower (the U.S.), which prides itself on being the most powerful nation on earth, while the other does not have a standing army, an organised state, or a functional government. Therefore, this is nothing but a struggle between unequal states.
For the past nine months, Israel has been bombarding large swathes of Palestinian land (Gaza and Jabalia) day and night. These two places have been reduced to rubble. In this precarious situation, more than two million Palestinian people have been displaced; over 38,713 people have been killed and 89,166 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, half of whom were children and women. Many Al Jazeera journalists were deliberately killed by Israeli snipers to silence the press and create a modicum of fear in the hearts of journalists. Thousands of buildings have been levelled and destroyed; hospitals and schools are not pared.
This is nothing but a total war of annihilation. The Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) goal is to wipe off Palestine from the surface of the earth if possible. Watching the unbated IDF attacks on harmless Palestinians on Al Jazeera Satellite Television awakens poignant memories of South Africa’s struggle for independence and the leadership role of Nigerian leaders, who damned all the consequences to support her brothers irrespective of whose ox is gored. While the Arab countries could be said to be extremely rich and powerful, their body language in this crisis shows that they fear Israel and the West.
Incidentally, unlike the Arabs, Nigeria was a key backer of the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid campaigns. The article “Nigeria’s role in ending apartheid in South Africa” by Mawuna Remarque Koutonin on AfrikaMagazine.com states that prominent Nigerians, like Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s First Prime Minister, strongly opposed apartheid and pushed for South Africa’s expulsion from the Commonwealth in 1961. Reportedly, Balewa was the first political figure to directly fund the ANC in the early 1960s. Nigeria gave $5 million a year to the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1970s.
Nigeria founded the Southern Africa Relief Fund (SAFR) in 1976 with the goals of providing education, supporting general welfare, and providing relief to victims of apartheid. Together with further contributions from cabinet members and individuals, General Obasanjo’s administration gave $3.7 million to SAFR. Nigerian students and public leaders also made contributions; by June 1977, $10.5 million had been raised. In 1976, the “Mandela tax” made it possible for 86 South African students to study in Nigeria, and hundreds more received free education. Thabo Mbeki and other prominent South Africans were welcomed by Nigeria, which also provided over 300 passports to people who were unable to travel because of apartheid restrictions. Nigeria, more than any other country, spent millions of dollars fighting apartheid between 1960 and 1995.
Nigeria, unlike the Arab nations that fiddle while Gaza and the whole of Palestine are on fire, stood her ground and maintained vigorous eye contact without blinking with the South African apartheid government and its Western allies. Ironically, apart from Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen, no other Arab nation has boldly supported Palestine’s liberation. While most Arab citizens supported Palestinian liberation, some Arab leaders paid lip service to the struggle. One of the prevailing assumptions is their inclination not to jeopardise their age-long vested family political and economic interests for Palestinian independence, knowing that mounting pressure on the U.S., which has the final say on Palestine’s status, might put them at loggerheads with her, something they are tactically avoiding at all costs.
Recently, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, called for Netanyahu to be held criminally responsible for his crimes against Palestinians. He equally called for an end to the illegal occupation and the recognition of the “State of Palestine” with the 1967 border and Jerusalem as its capital. For me, the Turkish government’s refusal to fuel the Israel plane in distress that flew into Antalya recently should be taken as an unfortunate response that should not be. Israelis’ lives matter as much as Palestinians’ lives.
It is on record that the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, proposed on November 29, 1947, recommended dividing Mandatory Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international zone. The plan allocated 56 percent of the land to the Jewish state, 42 percent to the Arab state, and 2 percent to Jerusalem. The plan aimed to end the British Mandate, with British forces withdrawing by August 1, 1948, and the new states forming by October 1, 1948. It also called for economic union and the protection of minority rights. While Jewish leaders accepted the plan with reservations, Arab leaders rejected it, leading to a civil war and preventing its implementation.
The total rejection of this proposal compromised Palestine’s status as a state because of the Arab states’ self-interest in controlling land in both Palestine and Israel. Israel and the Arab states fought several wars because of Arab attempts to hinder Israel’s foundation. Palestine is becoming one of the final regions to be colonised due to the Arab world’s lack of cohesion and productive diplomacy. Arab nations are still split by this same self-interest, which results in erratic and feeble reactions as they condemn Israel in public but keep their relations intact in private.
The Arab nations must use their economic might to counterbalance the economic interests of the United States and Israel, which are the main drivers of Palestine’s freedom. The two-state solution has also been made more difficult since its beginnings because the Arabs rejected the partition outright, claiming that based on “Palestine history, Zionist claims to that country had no legal or moral basis.” So long as the crisis persists, the Arab leaders cannot be exonerated of the burden of guilt in the Palestine saga.
Rotimi S. Bello, a public commentator, peace and conflict expert, and HR practitioner, writes from Canada.
