For the fifth consecutive time, Nigeria’s Buhari identifies with Palestinians at UNGA, but nothing has changed.
Since he assumed office in May 2015, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has for the fifth time identified with the Palestinian people by pushing for an independent state.
President Buhari on Tuesday, told world leaders at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the Palestinians have the right to have their own country free of Israel occupation.
Buhari, who had earlier in his speech addressed mind-boggling issues facing his country, supported his calls for an independent Palestinian state by quoting Resolution 242 of 1967 on the rights of the Palestinian people to have and live in peace in their own land.
Last year, while addressing the world leaders, Buhari advocated for a two-state solution to the Palestine/Israel crisis but despite his calls, Muslim News findings revealed that nothing significant has been done to ease the affairs of the Palestinians as Israel continues its illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank while Gaza is still under siege.
President Buhari for the first time identified with the people of Palestine in February 2016 during his official visit with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar in Doha, Qatar.
Later in September 2016 at the 71st UNGA Meeting, he called for a two-state solution with Palestinian rights to statehood, in conformity with numerous Security Council Resolutions, beginning with Resolution 242 of 1967.
At the 72nd UNGA Meeting in September 2017, President Buhari again raised concerns over violations and unimplementation of “several UN Security Council Resolutions from 1967 on the Middle East crisis, as the suffering of the Palestinian people and the blockade of Gaza continue”.
Three months later, in December 2017, President Donald Trump violated international laws and the UN charter by unilaterally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocating the US embassy in Tel-Aviv to the disputed city, where the Muslims’ third holiest Mosque, Al-Aqsa, is located.
According to the UN Security Council, the Netanyahu-led government of Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank and the use of lethal weapons on peaceful protesters in Gaza have no legal backing and constitute flagrant violations of international law.
