Africa must partner with Israel to combat slavery, which in modern days is hidden under the guise of lawfare, fueled by antisemitism, in institutions that are supposed to advance peace and civil liberties.
Labeled the dark continent that was good for nothing, Africa is rising from the ashes of racism, colonialism, unfair trade metrics and segregation. The same metrics are driven through antisemitism against the Jews and the State of Israel.
The brutal racism against and targeting of Jews in every nation on earth must be a wake-up call to Africa that we are next.
To date, the international community and global institutions have viewed Africans as third-rate global citizens. This is also their view of the Jews. The impact of hundreds of years of oppression has caused Africans to look down on themselves, but the time has come to look up, shake off the dust and break the shackles.
We must unite and fight this evil.
Iran, the International Criminal Court and the United Nations have conspired to turn Jews into slaves by curtailing their freedoms and civil liberties, and deploying servitude measures through warfare and lawfare.
Hamas’s use of the hostages in Gaza as human shields and capital to buy false peace despite obvious crimes is the highest form of slavery and human beings must never be held in servitude as bargaining chips.
According to the U.N., enslavement refers to situations of exploitation in which a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception and/or abuse of power.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, states that the prohibition of slavery and servitude is non-derogable.
Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
The 1926 Slavery Convention banned slavery and the slave trade. It created concrete measures that state parties agreed to undertake to eliminate these practices. The Convention, which was created under the auspices of the League of Nations, requires signatories to eliminate slavery and the slave trade in their territories.
State practice establishes this rule as a norm of customary international law applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts.
Clearly, international law prohibits slavery in the most explicit terms.
The prohibition of slavery was specified as early as the Lieber Code. Although not actually spelled out in the Hague and Geneva Conventions, nor in Additional Protocol I, it is clear that enslaving persons in an international armed conflict is prohibited. The various rules in the Geneva Conventions relating to the labor of prisoners of war and civilians, their release and return, and the prohibition in the Hague Regulations of the forced allegiance of persons in occupied territory, presuppose the prohibition of slavery.
The prohibition of “slavery and the slave trade in all their forms” has been recognized in Additional Protocol II as a fundamental guarantee for civilians and persons hors de combat.
“Enslavement” was considered a crime against humanity in the Charters of the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo. “Enslavement” is also listed as a crime against humanity under the Statutes of the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The military manuals and legislation of many states prohibit slavery and the slave trade, which are often, but not always, referred to as crimes against humanity. In the Krnojelac case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the defendant was accused, inter alia, of “enslavement as a crime against humanity” and “slavery as a violation of the laws or customs of war,” but was acquitted on these counts for lack of evidence.
It is therefore accurate and worrisome to note that Hamas’s abductions of non-combatant innocent Israeli civilians and exploitation of them for military advantage as they engage in terrorism is a form of slavery and the slave trade.
This must not be tolerated by any state that is a member of the U.N. and believes in protecting and advancing civil liberties, democracy, human rights and international law.
Israel must therefore reject the humiliation of slavery and servitude of its citizens and completely reject the use of its citizens as capital by a ragtag terrorist militia.
Israel must never sit at the same table with a demonic entity holding Israeli citizens in servitude. It is both degrading and sets a terrible precedent on human rights and liberties.
Israel has the right to pursue the liberty of its citizens in every manner possible under international law and grant its citizens and the nation honor and pride before God; to the glory of Hashem who created man in His image and likeness.
We in Africa will stand with our relatives the Jews, unite under the Abrahamic Accords and fight the good fight in advancing peace and security for all.
This is a call to unity, a brotherhood birthed in blood and inspired by God.
