Overwhelming number of Nigerian Igbo Christians on social media on Monday, jubilated over a report by Channels Television that the Israeli government callously murdered over 200 Palestinians, including 50 children in the space of one week.
In the report headlined ‘Israel launches new strikes on Gaza, more than 200 dead in a week’, the medium wrote that a barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Monday after a week of violence that has killed more than 200 civilians, including women and children, despite international calls for de-escalation.
In what has been described as terrorist onslaughts by the Israeli regime, scores of children, women and senior citizens have been killed, including dastardly attacks on the press with the destruction of a building housing various international media outfits as the height.
Reacting to the update of Channels TV on Facebook, commentators, observed to be majorly Nigerian Igbo Christians, sent laughing and loving emojis, including passing taunting remarks.
Muslim News findings revealed that over 3,800 people have so far reacted to the report in the last 24 hours of its publication. Those who reacted are grouped as 2.8k for like, 435 for sad, 271 for laugh, 129 for love, 71 for surprise and 46 for angry.
There were a mixture of Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, both Muslims and Christians among those who liked and felt sad about the incident, but 100% and 98% of names of people that laughed and loved the story were of the Igbos extraction, some of whom expressed their loyalty to the secession group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu.
Comments
Eyisi Joseph said, “This is just The beginning. Let them reserve some so that they can help Biafrans when it starts.”
Edward Akorga, wrote, “The Bible is very clear about this. No nation can fight God’s chosen people and go free. Fighting Israel is as good as fighting God. All these terrorist should take note. Israel is not Nigeria
Chinaza Michael, stressed, “This will show the world that our God is the real and mighty God. The whole world is panicking just because of children of Abraham.”
Chima Nwosu said, “No terrorist shall enter the kingdom of God, so I stand with Israel against terrorism.”
Emanuel Chijioku posted, “That’s good, terrorist whether home or abroad would go down including Nigerian forces.
Ernest Aghogbo Etuetue even quoted a Biblical verse, Numbers 23:24, which says, “The nation of Israel is like a mighty lion: It doesn’t rest until it has torn and devoured, Until it has drunk the blood of those it has killed.” no look for isreal trouble.
Reactions/analysis
Their reactions to the news also drew another set of reactions from those who believe that it’s disheartening for human beings irrespective of their religion, race, tribal or language leaning, to be jubilating over other people’s misfortune.
Media analyst, Eseogbene Al-Faruq Ohwojehri who also observed the development, posted on his Facebook timeline, the screenshot of the headline and the Igbo Christians who used the laughing emoji, in reacting to the news.
He wrote, “It is simple. Show me any news item that says Christians had been killed and Muslims in their overwhelming numbers will come out and laugh over it.
“200 persons including about 50 kids. There is always a Samuel or David or Obiora Thomas that finds joy in these kind of murder. The sad thing is that they are not members of a known group that we can tag extremist group, they are your neighbours and ‘friends’. They love to hear the death of kids so long those kids are Muslims,” he added.
Also, Yunus Ahmed said, They (Christians) thought Israel is a Christian state… Most Christians in NIGERIA believe Israel is a Christian state. What they don’t know is, there are more Muslim (17%) in Israel than Christians. Christians are less than 200,000 (2%) people in Israel.”
In his analysis of the event, AbdulRasheed Suleiman wrote in part, “The kind of hypocrisy of many Nigerian Pentecostal Christians is mind-boggling, to say the least, over the current Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“They are largely the ones who cry of Fulani herdsmen massacre and reject almost all Farmer-herder peace initiative by the Federal government, and tag it as “Jihad” or land-grabbing, but they are the ones who support more, of the Israeli annexation of the already decimated and truncated Palestinian territories.
“I asked one of them, who is a staunch Trumpist and Nnamdi Kanu’s fanatic whether he would allow the establishment of a “Fulani State” or “Modibbo/Ardo state” within his Homeland, but another started blabbing on a defensive counter-argument with logical non-sequitur, coupled with flouting of Gricean Communication Maxim of truth.
“He retorted by asking if Fulani could return the Hausa lands back to them as if any land was grabbed and turned into an apartheid like it is currently done in Israel barely 100 years ago,” he noted.
The genesis of this latest Israeli offensive
The impression among many Nigerians on social media was that Hamas, the Islamic movement at the helms of affairs in Gaza, started the attack, but, little did they know that that it was actually Israel that first terrorized the innocent Palestinians.
In his Facebook post, a Nigerian journalist, Rasheed Abubakar wrote, “the ongoing crisis started when Israel evicted Palestinians who reside in the Sheikh Jarrah district from their homes with the purpose of moving in jewish settlers.
According to him, “The similitude of this, is like, Government asking you to vacate your father’s house for Fulani to move in, would you allow it? So, the Palestinians protested. They saw it as injustice, so they started protesting and the Israeli forces started using rubber bullets, which injured over 50 Palestinians.
Speaking further, “During the blessed month of Ramadan, Israeli police attacked Muslim worshippers right inside the Masjid Aqsa, using stun grenades and teargas, in the middle of their salaat and many were injured….in fact, some would consider it sacrilege for the Israeli forces to invade Aqsa during Muslim blessed month of Ramadan…. people died in the process and many were injured. Apparently, you were either not aware of these, though I doubt your ignorance is innocent
“These are some of the reasons that led to the responses from Hamas, by firing rockets as a warning, before Israel now fired back….Unfortunately, all of you coming out now to run commentaries didn’t see anything wrong in points No.1 and No. 2 because it’s Israel, but now blaming Hamas, who is defending its citizens from ethnic cleansing.
“If you can condemn the criminality of some so-called Fulani herders, (which I have been doing for long), without condemning Israeli forceful occupation, wanton killings, destruction of infrastructure, air land and sea blockade of Gaza and illegal settlement, you might as well admit that you are a supporter of terrorism”
