PROF. FEMI OLUFUNMILADE
“My people perish for lack of knowledge.” – Hosea 4:6
Ignorance kills a people. If you don’t know salt is an accelerator of high blood pressure, you can indulge in sprinkling raw salt in all your meals. And if you don’t know sugar is a booster of diabetes, you can persist in drinking two bottles of soft drinks daily.
I feel deeply aggrieved when African intellectuals who are supposed to lead the way for fellow Africans out of what Bob Marley calls “mental slavery” are passionately locked in what Marxists call “false consciousness”, or what Chief Obafemi Awolowo would call “a brilliant display of polished ignorance”.
On the raging issue of Israel’s military offensives in Palestine, some black people, negatively brainwashed, believe it’s a matter of Muslims versus Christians. Some don’t even know that Israelites are not Christians but Judaists. Those who know the difference still believe the Israelites are the people of God who will one day accept Jesus as their Lord, according to some biblical prophesies. They won’t remember that those in reference would be “a remnant” and that would be during the Great Tribulation following Christ’s Second Coming.
Against the background of this muddled thinking, whatever atrocities Israel commits is fair game to them. After all, it’s against the wicked Muslims. They don’t know there are more Christians in Palestine than in Israel. And more Muslims in Israel than Christians.
They further see the support by the United States for Israel, since it was established in May 1948, as an act of God. That’s the height of their ignorance.
The truth of the matter is that the powerful forces in the US supporting Israel are some of the most greedy, selfish, inhuman, rapacious and utterly wicked human beings ever to pass through this earth.
There are self-centred reasons why the US backs Israel vociferously, vehemently, and unquestionably.
Not the least, the core of the Israeli leadership was substantially made up of European Jews who migrated just to make Israel a reality. Many of them were Westerners. In fact, Lord Rothschild to whom the 1917 letter by Lord Balfour expressing Britain’s decision to support the establishment of the new Israeli State was addressed, was British.
Hence, both the US and Britain wanted Israel as their proxy state led by Westerners in an oil-rich Middle East, where their oil multinationals were prospecting for oil. Their intention was not borne of love for Jews as people of God. It was to get a foothold in the Middle East to be able to exploit the region’s resources. That’s why they will go to any length to protect Israel, as well as pull down any country getting too powerful as to rival their nuclear-armed Israel.
To stay safe, most of the oil-rich Arab countries have accepted to be good boys of American imperialism. And America, in return, helps keep them in power. That is why most of the Arab countries are undemocratic monarchies: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE etc. Here the hypocrisy of America is writ large. A self-appointed guardian angel of democracy keeps undemocratic monarchies in power in exchange for oil. Plenty of it.
But woe betides those countries that try to be independent without America’s influence. Their leaderships, sooner than later, are brought down. That was the story of Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who was directly toppled in a 2003 invasion by the US and UK. Saddam was accused of trying to produce weapons of mass destruction. They claimed they received intelligence report to that effect. At the end, it was all lies! No weapon of mass destruction was found, but the goal had been achieved. A disobedient boy had been removed from power and the oil pipes of Iraq thence flow cheaply into American/ British vessels.
That was also the story of Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. Like Saddam, Gaddafi was independent -minded. He won’t be a yes boy of Western imperialists. At an opportune moment of the Western-backed Arab Spring, he was taken out. Like Iraq, the Libyan oil pipes have become the booty of war.
But the ignorant African intellectuals follow Western propaganda by the nose in demonising the likes of Saddam and Gadaffi.
When the imperialists find it difficult to topple a regime, they will accuse it of promoting terrorism. That’s the burden of Iran, for instance. Once the bad name sticks, they mobilise for economic sanctions against the country. Recently, just because Iran responded to Israeli attack on its embassy in Damascus, Western countries have imposed fresh sanctions on the country. Whereas, Israel that launched the first attack and has slaughtered over 30,000 human beings in Palestine in the past five months plus, and has defied UN resolutions, has received no sanctions! Any such attempt would be vetoed by the US and UK.
The irony of these shenanigans is clearly visible to African intellectuals whose minds are liberated from mental slavery. They won’t join the bandwagon of calling any country terrorist or supporting Israeli genocide in Gaza.
You know why, the first transnational terrorist organisation in the contemporary world was trained, armed, and funded by the United States. That’s al-Qaeda. The US created it, using Osama bin Laden, when it needed proxies to fight the USSR from Afghanistan border.
Al-Qaeda became a “terrorist” organisation in the eyes of the US when its leadership began to threaten American interest because the US wanted to liquidate them after using them. The defunct USSR was forced by al-Qaeda fighters to withdraw from the war with Afghanistan.
Get a copy of Mahmood Mamdani’s “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim” and read about how the US created al-Qaeda through the CIA.
The US is only after economic benefits and hegemony globally. It has no interest in you as Africans. Why would you then be used to further its cause through blind support of Israeli genocide? Ignorance of historical facts?
During apartheid, both the US and the UK supported the white supremacist regime in South Africa. No sympathy whatsoever for the black majority. It was the military and diplomatic support accorded the black freedom fighters by Nigeria and countries like Cuba and Libya that forced their hands in South Africa. Nigeria was number one in pulling down the strongholds of apartheid. The US and UK were only interested in supporting their white brethren so they could forever exploit the rich minerals of South Africa.
Same went for Zimbabwe. Nigeria had to nationalise British Petroleum and changed it to African Petroleum to force the Government of a racist Margaret Thatcher of the UK to withdraw its support for the apartheid regime of Ian Smith.
When Robert Mugabe, who became president at Zimbabwe’s liberation in 1980, decided to redistribute land stolen from blacks by minority whites, the Western countries imposed terrible sanctions on the country. They demonised Mugabe as a brutal dictator. Till date, the West is still ruining the economy of that country through unjust sanctions. But, never again! The land will not return to whites.
South Africa was the country that sued Israel for genocide at the International Criminal Court presently. It did so because it understood exactly the apartheid system Israel has imposed on Palestinians. With the ongoing genocide in Gaza, its leadership , across party lines, had to take action. They did.
There’s more to be said, but the point being made is, before you sheepishly follow the Western hawks in demonising a people or country, understand the background dynamics and weigh it against the interest of your own race.
Israel is not more than an imperialist outpost of the US, with the UK tagging along like a dog with its tail.