Thousands of kilometres from the site of the ‘massacre,’ a peaceful march organised by the African Mediation, Management and Conflict Resolution Association (AMGRC) brought together hundreds of men and women in Dakar on Sunday 26 May. Although the participants came from different countries and backgrounds, they were united by their white T-shirts and Palestinian keffiyehs. Together they marched almost two kilometres, chanting “Free Palestine.”
Organised in partnership with the Palestinian embassy in Dakar, the demonstration was in support of the Palestinian people of Gaza, who have been massacred since 7 October by the Israeli army in retaliation for Hamas attacks. The genocide has so far left “35,000 dead, 10,000 missing, 80,000 wounded and two million displaced” and caused extensive material destruction. The demonstrators in Dakar strongly denounce this situation.
“We are not here to appeal to the reason of Africans, but to men of the heart who believe in justice and peace everywhere and at all times,” said Boucounta Diallo, a Senegalese international lawyer, criticising the “total impotence of international organisations such as the United Nations.”
“Israel is the first state created on the basis of a United Nations resolution (181), but it is also the one that respects these resolutions the least. This is a paradox,” he criticised, pointing out that the Jewish state has even defied the judges of the Israeli Supreme Court by refusing to implement their decisions.
Alioune Tine, founder of Africajom and international human rights activist, who was present at the demonstration, called on the United States and the European Union to “act much more decisively to stop the fire” in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian territories most affected by the massacres.
“This slaughter, which does not spare children, must be stopped. We are deeply moved and outraged by the massacre of children in Gaza,” said the former director of Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office.
On Monday 20 May, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, called for arrest warrants to be issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza. This initiative has been criticised by several Western leaders who support Israel, while Spain, Ireland and Norway have pledged to recognise the state of Palestine.
Senegal’s support for Palestine has intensified with the arrival of new leaders. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko have recently spoken out to stop the slaughter in Palestine.
But for Alioune Tine, who has chaired the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People since 1975, Senegal must “go much further diplomatically.” The first action should be “an appeal” to the international community to “exert pressure” to stop the shelling in Gaza and ensure that “crimes do not go unpunished,” he insisted.
ODL/ac/lb/abj/APA