DECLARATION BY THE CONFERENCE OF ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS (CIO).
Arising from our deliberations today Saturday 21st, October, 2023 following a deep study of the crisis in all its ramifications, the Pan-Nigerian Front for The Support of Palestine do declare and demand thus:
1. That the international community led by the United Nations should prevail upon Israel to cease its bombing campaigns of Gaza and other areas which has brought horror not just to the Palestinians but to the world.
2. That the United Nations should lead efforts at creating humanitarian corridors and ensuring that aid and relief packages have access into Gaza and other places.
3. That any interim peace process MUST as a matter of necessity, incorporate the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
4. That we consider as irresponsible, reprehensible and barbaric the show of support by the duo of the United States and the European Union for Israel and we hold them complicit and culpable in this human tragedy happening before the global audience.
5. That ICC should commence a prosecution of the war crimes committed by Israel both now and prior to this time taking into consideration its violation of all extant international law including failure to protect the people under its occupation as written in the Geneva Convention.
6. We affirm that Hamas is not a terrorist organization , but rather an elected representatives of the people engaged in arms insurrection against an occupying force as allowed by international law, rationality and necessity.
7. The international community led by the UN must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States which has become part of the Israeli occupation machinery.
8. The world must work to bring Israel to the Two-States solution, compel it to halt settlement building and lift its siege of Gaza.
9. We call on the Arab League, The African Union, and other regional governments to exert pressure that will change the apartheid character of the Zionist state of Israel and make it conform to international laws and norms.
10. We SOUND THE NOTE OF WARNING TO ARAB STATES WHO HAVE NORMALIZE OR ARE HOPING TO NORMALIZE TO HALT FORTHWITH as this is the CREDENTIAL that Israel needed to wipe out Palestine as Netanyahu made clear in his speech at the recent United Nations general Assembly session.
11. We encourage the global audience horrified by this genocide being committed by Israel to patronize the BDS: individuals should boycott ALL Israeli products and those of its affiliates; corporate entities should divest away from any outfit having anything to do with Israel and governments should impose sanctions on the apartheid state.
12. In this vein, we demand that the Nigerian government put on hold ALL diplomatic relations with Israel until the Two-States resolution is achieved.
13. We also encourage all nations on the African continents to put on ice relations with Israel as sufferers of the brutality of colonial occupation in their history.
14. Lastly, the support groups gathered here, unanimously agree that this shall be a permanent FRONT that gears to action till FREEDOM and STATEHOOD is achieved for Palestine.
I thank you for your audience.
Prof isa Maishanu.
Dean, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
Adviser to Vice Chancellor of Afro-Asian University, Somalia.
