The Muslim Congress (TMC) has called on the Arab League (AL), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Organisation of Islamic Countries to constitute a significant worldwide lobby that will ensure that the Palestinian liberation and establishment of statehood is made a significant point of discussion at the United Nations.
The Amir (President) of TMC, Alhaji Abdul Waasii Bangbala made the disclosure in a statement on Tuesday while reacting to the latest Palestine-Israel crisis, which he said “caused much damage in the Gaza territory that will take several years or decades to rebuild”.
According to him, the failed diplomatic efforts to realise a two-state solution are many, beginning from the 1991 Madrid Conference, the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Taba negotiations in 2001, the Arab Peace Initiative by the Arab League in 2002 and the 2013-2014 peace talks.
“All of these efforts only show that the United Nations and the world’s super powers lack the commitment and dedication to find a lasting solution to the problem that was created by one of them, Britain, in 1917,” he added.
Bangbala recalled that the trouble with Palestine is already a century old since the Balfour declaration in 1917 seeking to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine without consulting the Palestinian people. He therefore called for a collective lasting solution to Israel’s aggression, saying that Palestinian lives also matter.
“The Palestinians need to be free. They need to live like other normal people. They do not want to live under occupation by a foreign military force on their own land. They want to freely make their choices as against the present situation where Israel is the sole determinant of whether they get food, medicine and fuel supplies or not.
“These are freedoms that other people take for granted. Life in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem is nasty, brutish and short, to say the least,” he added. The leader of one of Nigeria’s leading faith based organisations, Bangbala said this is the period for genuine soul-searching when the world must search its conscience.
“This is the time the world must know that the travails of the Palestinian people for a hundred years put a lie to the grandstanding of the United Nations that it was established to guarantee the rights and freedom of people all over the world. It is certain that the land of Palestine and her people will one day be free. It is a matter of time,” he noted.
Read full statement below
TMC PRESS RELEASE
THE MUSLIM CONGRESS (TMC)
THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CRISES: WHEN THE WORLD BURIES ITS HEAD IN THE SAND
A truce has been brokered in the latest Israeli-Palestinian crisis. The first convoys of humanitarian aid bringing much-needed medicine, food and fuel into Gaza arrived after Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing. This latest crisis caused much damage in the Gaza territory that will take several years or decades to rebuild. Thousands of Palestinians who fled their homes returned to horrible scenes of devastation that also caused the deaths of about 250 Palestinians with about half of them being women and children. Several thousand were injured and also seeking medical help. About 17 medical facilities and other public utilities including electricity and water supplies were bombed by the rampaging Israeli army in the 11-day conflict. Thirteen people including two children and an Israeli soldier were killed on the Israeli side.
This latest conflict started with the attack on Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and the forced illegal eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah, their native homeland for decades, by Jewish settlers aided by the Israeli government. Hamas, the political authority in Gaza, began firing rockets after warning Israel to stop its attack on Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa leading to further airstrikes and missile attacks from Israel. But these are only pointers to the real problems which include the future status of Jerusalem, the fate of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, the issue of the Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian state.
But each truce has always been an adjournment rather than a permanent halt to the crisis. Everyone knows that the truce is simply a countdown to the next crisis because the real problems resulting in the crises have never been tackled headlong. It is gratifying to know that Joe Biden, the US President, has reiterated the fact that a two-state solution that has been on the table for decades is the only way to resolve the crisis in order to bring lasting peace. The problem has always been that the world powers lack the human and political will to carry out an unbiased and equitable enforcement of the two-state solution. They would rather leave the Palestinians at the mercy of Israel that is supported both militarily and financially by the US and other world powers. This has created a cyclic occurrence of tears, sorrows and blood for the Palestinians and the mechanical signing of ceasefire agreements and the convoys bringing humanitarian relief supplies. Is this the best that the humans of the 21st-century world can deliver with its much-touted advancement in technology and administrative prowess? Or, is there just a deliberate conspiracy by the world powers to hand the Palestinians the short end of the stick? This problem will not disappear simply because we ignore it. The desire of the Palestinian people to be free is irrevocable and no power, no matter how great, can extinguish that desire.
What the crisis does each time it happens is to highlight the pains and sufferings that the Palestinians go through even during the so-called normal times. There seems to be an unwritten rule that Palestinian sufferings should not be spoken about. The major world media outlets always make sure that news about their sufferings is significantly under-reported. In March 2016 during an outbreak of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, Bernie Sanders, a US presidential democratic candidate at a debate, talked about the high unemployment, decimated houses, decimated healthcare and decimated schools available in occupied Palestine. It is needless to say that he lost his presidential bid. Bernie Sanders stated that, The fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.
Just recently, US Congresswoman Cori Bush of St. Louis had this to say about the State of Israel, That means we oppose our money going to fund militarised policing, occupation and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war, we are anti-occupation, and we are anti-apartheid. Period.” This is simply a glimpse into what is actually happening in occupied Palestine.
The trouble with Palestine is already a century old since the Balfour declaration by Britain in 1917 seeking to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine without consulting the Palestinian people. It is high time we found a collective lasting solution to the problem because Palestinian lives also matter. The Palestinians need to be free. They need to live like other normal people. They do not want to live under occupation by a foreign military force on their own land. They want to freely make their choices as against the present situation where Israel is the sole determinant whether they get food, medicine and fuel supplies or not. These are freedoms that other people take for granted. Life in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem is nasty, brutish and short, to say the least.
We urge the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organisation of Islamic Countries to constitute a significant world-wide lobby that will ensure that the Palestinian crisis is made a significant point of discussion at the United Nations. The failed diplomatic efforts to realise a two-state solution are many beginning from the 1991 Madrid Conference, the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Taba negotiations in 2001, the Arab Peace Initiative by the Arab League in 2002 and the 2013-2014 peace talks. All of these efforts only show that the United Nations and the worlds super powers lack the commitment and dedication to find a lasting solution to the problem that was created by one of them in 1917. This is the period for genuine soul-searching when the world must search its conscience. This is the time the world must know that the travails of the Palestinian people for a hundred years put the lie to the grandstanding of the United Nations that it was established to guarantee the rights and freedoms of people all over the world.
It is certain that the land of Palestine and her people will one day be free. It is a matter of time.
Alhaji Abdul Waasii T. Bangbala
Amir, TMC International Headquarters
