The Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh, has vowed that Palestinians will not accept another Nakba.
The Arabic word Nakba means catastrophe or disaster. In reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the term Nakba or al-Nakba refers to the Palestinians having lost their homeland during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
It’s thought that around 700,000 people in what is now Israel either fled or were forced from their homes.
While addressing a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Shawesh said Palestinians would not accept being forced out of their home once again by Israel.
According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli government is in talks with Congo and other countries for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza.
This is coming weeks after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said its Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate.
“Israel political leaders are discussing this solution with many African countries but we will not accept another Nakba,” Shawesh said.
The Palatine envoy called on other countries to join South Africa in standing in support of international law and justice by suing Israel for its genocide of the people of Palestine.
“We also urge all countries that side with Israel’s acts of genocide and are neglecting to condemn Israel’s war crimes to acknowledge what is actually happening and to review their moral and legal position. The truth is that the behavior of the Israeli government is in fact form of genocide against the Palestinian people.
“It is absolutely inhumane to see countries with the largest military naval forces in the world moving to protect shipping and trade lines in the Red Sea, but we do not see them moving or even raising their voices to stop the acts of genocide taking place in the occupied Palestinian territories that we are seeing on the news.
“What makes matters worse, is that many of these countries are fully complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine by providing Israel with military means and ammunition, in addition to unconditional and unlimited political support,” he said.
South Africa recently submitted an 84-page document crammed with evidence that Israel is breaching its legal obligation under the 1948 International Genocide Convention.(Daily Trust)
