Israeli-Hamas conflict: Shari’ah council slams US, seeks aid for Palestinians

Muslim organisations in the country under the aegis of the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria, on Thursday, raised concerns over the crisis in the Middle East.

While condemning the bombardment on Gaza by Israel, the SCSN said Nigerian humanitarian organisations and mosques should mobilise assistance to the distressed people of Palestine.

The SCSN President, Sheikh AbdurRasheed Hadiyyatullah, stated this while reading the text of a press conference held in Abuja.

He also condemned the most recent singular act of the United States “as it has always done for vetoing the United Nations Resolution calling for humanitarian pauses in Gaza war that would facilitate passage of aid to Gaza.”

According to him, the international community has failed to address the root cause of the conflict largely because the US has consistently offered unconditional support to the zionist occupiers of Palestine.

Hadiyyatullah said, “The United Nations, which could not stop the establishment of the Zionist State of Israel in Palestine, however, guaranteed the right of Palestinians to self-determination and their existence as human beings. It has consistently passed resolutions that have been violated by the Zionist State of Israel.

“The UN and the international community to stop this hypocrisy, apply international law equally on everybody and pursue the realization of the two states solution in Palestine diligently, so as to bring to an end this callousness, bloodshed and suffering in that part of the world.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria to emulate the government and opposition party of South Africa who condemned the actions of the Zionist State of Israel. It should immediately assume its African leadership position in Africa as it was during the Murtala administration. It should be in the forefront in the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed people of Palestine and in places such as Myanmar, Kashmir, China and India.”

He stated further, “The Federal Government of Nigeria should urgently review its relations with the Zionist State of Israel until it respects International Law and the rights of Palestinians.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria on behalf of the teeming Muslims and Christians and people of conscience in Nigeria, should as a matter of urgency, provide relief materials to the besieged Palestinians who are in dire need of food, clothing, medicine and other essentials.

“Nigerian humanitarian organizations and mosques are hereby called upon to mobilise assistance to the distressed people of Palestine. The council calls on all Muslims and people of other faiths to offer special prayers invoking Allah, The Most High, to come to the aid of the Palestinians and all oppressed people of the world.”

The SCSN said the ongoing crisis in Palestine is a genocide because apart from its criminality and lack of humanity, it also clearly showed the failure of global institutions established after the Second World War to protect human beings against any form of tyranny.

Hadiyyatullah said it was an irony that the Zionists who claim to be the only victims of Nazi inhumanity have become the most inhuman political activists of the twenty-first century.

He said, “The Zionist State of Israel is the only apartheid state in the world subsidized by the United States the most powerful “democracy.”

After confining many Palestinians to Gaza, the largest open-air prison in the World, the Zionist State with the full support of the United States and its allies is now determined to eliminate the over two million Palestinians both Muslims and Christians in this prison.

“Majority of humanity is against the recent Zionist genocide in Gaza, where they have dropped more than 6,000 bombs on civilian population and infrastructure including hospitals and schools. The latest was the bombing of al-Hilal Baptist Christian Hospital.

“This is unprecedented. Many women and children have been massacred by Israeli bombardment. US President Biden went to the Middle East to shamelessly seek support for the Zionist State of Israel and he failed to get the endorsement of all the countries in the Middle East including traditional US allies.”

Hadiyyatullah added, “The Zionist State of Israel, the US and its European allies, were the only countries that supported the apartheid regime of South Africa. Nigeria was a frontline state in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Those countries that supported apartheid in South Africa are the ones supporting apartheid in Palestine.

“Both the Government and the opposition party in South Africa have condemned the Zionist genocide in Palestine. Even in the United States and Europe all progressive forces are unanimous in their condemnation of Israeli genocide against Palestinians.”