The recent Israeli soldiers’ raid on the flotilla boats has been generating a lot of controversy. Various governments from around the world have come out to make statements, most of them condemning the action. Turkey whose nationals were reportedly killed has withdrawn diplomatic ties with the state of Israel. One is not completely surprised at these reactions from the people and some governments and
organizations, it is typical. What is going on today all over the place as it has always been is what one can safely describe as selective justice. People only choose who should deserve “justice” not necessarily who is right. Many times you hear people talking of the so-called disproportionate use of force in one’s defense. The question is what do you expect? Do you expect that Israeli soldiers should haul stones and bottles back to the Hamas supporters on the Gaza strip in order to be seen as using a proportionate use of force? Do we expect that in return for the hundreds of rockets being shelled into the civilian residential areas in Israel by Hamas should be returned rocket for rocket by Israel?
Any nation that will not defend its citizens and territory will be failing in its obligation. It will therefore be negligence and irresponsibility on the part of the state of Israel not to use whatever force it has at its disposal for herself-defense. For months after months Israeli civilians made up of women and children endured a barrage of rocket fire from Hamas. While the volley of rocket assaults went on against Israel the condemning world of course never saw anything wrong with that. But as soon as Israel decided to return fire for fire then the world felt that an injustice was going and that there is disproportionate use of force on the side of Israel.
All the noise is nothing short of insincerity and anti-Semitic sentiment being whipped up by some hypocrites. The current critics justify their position as expected by acting and talking like they are ignorant of the fact that there are led down rules on how the aid consignments will get into Gaza. These guidelines were agreed to by all the parties. So one wonders, why the sudden deviation by a section and why did nobody call the erring party’s attention to the agreed on terms. To me the whole thing is a lopsided judgment and disproportionate use of the majority’s sympathy. It is left for the state of Israel to choose between pacifying the people who in the first place do not wish for its existence and the preservation of her integrity. Justice is only done when there is a balancing of blames.
For those of us who have suffered unjust persecution this only confirms that in the world justice is for sale and has always gone to the highest bidder. For those who do not seem to understand it probably it is because they have not been subjected to that terrible feeling of being in the presence of imminent and clear danger. Those people maybe can be forgiven but experience has proven many times that knowing what is right and true is not the preserve of just a few people, most people can attain it if only they can put in a little more effort trying to. That accepted, yet we do not want to rule out the fact that sometimes you need to have personally been through the experience of the fear of real threat of total annihilation and complete destruction for you to better appreciate the reactions of someone going through that horrible feeling.
For almost three years from May 1967 to January 1970 there was a disproportionate use of force by Nigeria against Biafra and the world has not found it necessary to condemn the action either then or now. During that horrible period of time Nigeria mobilized Britain, the then Soviet Union, Egypt and Czechoslovakia to completely destroy every living thing in Biafra. The USA in its state policy concerning the biafracide that was going on was complacent or looking the other way. The United Nations never saw it fit to intervene in the matter but rather as an official stance called it a Nigerian internal affair. (How could that have been an internal affair when two sovereign nations Biafra and Nigeria were engaged in war)? The Organization of African Unity (OAU) or as it is known today African Union (AU) never one day condemned the mass murder of a whole people while it was going on.
But the same African Union has just issued a statement about the on-going matter between Israel and the Palestinians condemning Israel’s action, of course what do you expect. But one cannot but wonder what moral right has the AU got to make any statement concerning the present Israeli Palestinian issue? In my opinion it can only earn that right when it has properly addressed the pending issue of Biafra and Nigeria. The situation between Biafra and Nigeria is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately by all the concerned bodies in the world today before it escalates out of hand. Justice and restitution must be done on the matter now by a world that wants everyone to believe that it knows what is right and what is wrong. The Biafran Sovereign state issue is non-negotiable and must be addressed now.
Biafra for the past decades has been subjected to the same situation where it finds it necessary to defend herself against forces that are hell-bent on wiping it out of the face of the earth. Therefore we do not have to stretch our imagination to empathize with any other group of people who has to face the same situation. The soldiers were only defending themselves against some armed activists. It could have been the other way around.
During the total blockade of food and medicine to Biafra by Nigeria and the OAU many planes carrying aid to Biafra were short down and the world, all the countries shouting today over a people who were defending themselves when they were attacked never said a word to condemn Nigeria’s actions. The aid planes were not armed yet they were short down by Nigeria while in this case the activists in the ships were armed, dared and attacked the soldiers.
By Osita Ebiem