The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is in strong solidarity with Right of the State and People of Israel to defend themselves against any internal and external aggression particularly their collective right to self-defend themselves and their properties such as territories, homes and public institutions and facilities at all times. That is to say that the Oct 7, 2023 coordinated terrorist attacks by Hamas and other allied terror groups and their sovereign backers are totally and strongly condemned. The attacks which mowed down not less than 1,400 Israelis including 286 soldiers and other nationals including 31 Americans and terminally injured 3,400 defenseless Israelis and others are unspeakably reprehensible and nothing short of a replication of the cannibalistic and barbaric era of the ‘Saladin (Salah ad-Din ibn Ayyub: 1174D-March 4, 1193AD) of Egypt’ during which POWs and ‘enemy children’, captured from the Third Crusade were dismembered and fried like bean-cakes. The Hamas jihadist attacks also led to abduction of between 199 and 250 Israelis who are being held hostage. Saddening and shocking was the large scale magnitude perpetration of property destructions on the side of the State and innocent citizens of Israel.

Totally Condemning The Rising Civilian Casualties Involving Innocent Palestinians In Gaza

The rising civilian casualties and property destructions in the City of Gaza are totally unacceptable and strongly condemned. They are also nothing short of ‘reprisal radicalism and crudity’ perpetrated outside the confines of ‘military necessity’ and a clear breach of the “Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 (Laws of the War) and its 1977 Protocols (1 and

11) which the State of Israel must have ratified as a ‘49th Member-State of the United Nations on May 12, 1949’. The Four Geneva Conventions have clearly laid down procedures for Inter-State and Intra-State Armed Conflicts under the Doctrines of “the Jus In Bellum”, “the Jus Ad Bellum” and “the Jus Post Bellum” as well as the ‘Principles of Use of Force, Proportionality of Force and Legitimate Self Defense” are incorporated. The Geneva Conventions had also in 1977 received additional two “Protocols 1 and 11” for purpose of strengthening the protection of civilian and property victims of the International Armed Conflict (Inter-State) and Non-International Armed Conflict (Intra-State) and placement of limits on the way wars are fought. Among them are prohibition of attacks on civilian homes and religious centers and symbols and protection of civilian populations, journalists and humanitarian aid workers, etc in situations of Inter-State or Intra-State armed conflicts. Others are prohibition of acts of torture, starvation, etc.

The City Of Gaza Must Not Be Reduced To “The City Of Tents”

The leaders of the State of Israel including its war planners and policy makers must refrain from turning the City of Gaza into Rubbles or Tents”. Since the Israeli Intelligence Services are one of the most sophisticated and respected in the world, time has come for them to locate and spot the exact locations where the Israeli hostages and the enclaves of the Jihadist Hamas and Hezbollah are located including whether the Israeli hostages are being held “within the sovereign or outside sovereign territories of Israel and those of its adversaries”. The exact location of such places using “Man-Mental-Machine Intelligence and Investigations” is extremely important so as to protect and save the innocent Palestinian population and their homes from further attacks and destructions. It is also extremely important for the leaders of Israel not to limit their searches to ‘Palestinian territories” alone as it is possible the hostages have been taken to the territories or hideouts of those bankrolling the Hamas and the Hezbollah. Where credible intelligence available to the leaders of Israel shows that the hostages are being held in tunnels or surface enclaves located in civilian populated areas controlled by Palestinians, their exact locations should be ascertained and effective safety measures for civilians and their homes put in place before any rescue operation. Same methods should be applied if secret locations of the Jihadist Hamas and their allies’ hideouts are traced to civilian populated areas including deployment of electronic and manual intelligence detection and tracking. In all, the 2,750 defenseless Palestinians killed so far and 9,700 others wounded as well as over 1m IDPs generated in Gaza and environs and property destructions inflicted involving Israeli reprisals or retaliations following October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks are strongly condemned and must be stopped and de-escalated.

The World Is Speedily Collapsing Under The Fumbling And Wobbling United Nations

The United Nations Organization is no longer what it used to be and it is fumbling and wobbling with great speed. The founding objectives of the body: Ensuring International Peace and Security and Human Rights have become a ruse; to the extent that the world is speedily collapsing under its watch. One of the litmus tests for the United Nations since its formation in 1945 is management of the Israeli-Palestinian Armed Conflict including finding a permanent solution; a task that has become an act of perpetual impossibility for the world body. It is deeply saddening that at 78, the UN has become a toothless bulldog and woefully failed to ensure international peace and security and enthrone the global culture of human rights and democratic freedoms. Today, the UNGA has become an arena where failed and criminal Heads of State and Government are assembled annually to waste and siphon funds borrowed from IMF, World Bank and allied others. The three important organs of the UN: Security Council, General Assembly and ECOSOC have also become anachronistically out of tune with current global realities.

Granted that time and space have disallowed us from going down memory lane, it must be clearly pointed out that the present leaders of the United Nations have allowed achievements and breakthroughs recorded in the 90s to slip off their fingers.

Among them are the record-holding breakthroughs geared towards “preventing the eruption and escalation of Inter-State Armed Conflicts” and curtailing and minimizing “Intra-State Armed Conflicts”. Apart from the fact that out of 193 UN Member-States, more half or 95-100 are presently embroiled in devastating internal armed conflicts-with Africa recording not less than 35; the wars in Syria (proxy super power war since 2011), Libya (proxy super power war since 2011), Ukraine-Russia-backed Separatists Intra-State war (since Feb 2014), Russia-Ukraine Inter-State war (since Feb 24, 2022) and the newest Israel-Hamas/Palestinian war (since Oct 7, 2023) have all erupted as a result of the fumbling state of the United Nations and its three organs of UNSC, UNGA and ECOSOC.

The UN has also relapsed into its pre 1991 end of Cold War era including mismanagement of the Israeli-Palestinian Armed Conflicts dating back to 1948. The combined negative effects of the post 1991 Cold War era armed conflicts under UN watch have resulted to the death of not less than 30m civilians killed by ‘Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons’ and armed conflict generated hunger, starvation and diseases. The devastating conflicts have also been responsible for endless insurgencies, terrorisms, tyrannies, arms race and proliferation of licit and illicit small arms and light weapons and “nuclearization” of the Middle East such as large scale production and possession of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons or threats of possessing them. The UN weakness-caused Israeli-Palestinian Armed Conflicts have specifically caused havocs, deaths, depopulation, forceful migration, sexual violence and abuses, hunger, diseases, starvation, injuries, fears, under-development and generation of intractable religious tensions in the Region. It has as well led to age-long leadership logjam and display of negative or illegitimate power play at the UN. As a matter of fact, the UN is in a verge of total collapse and replacement. As the inheritance of the League of Nations (1919-1945), the Holy Alliance/the Concert of Europe (1815/18-1915/19) and the Holy Leagues (1495-1699); the UN is speedily heading to the path of extinction like others before it and from every indication, the “THIRD WORLD WAR” is cooking!

The Landmark visions espoused by Woodrow Wilson and his Famous 1914: “14-Point Programs for formation of the League of Nations (in 1919)” and the “Atlantic Charter of 1941” that eventually gave birth to UN have been trashed, dumped or abandoned by the present leaders of the United Nations. In 1992, Dr. Boutros-Boutros-Ghali, then Secretary General of the United Nations presented a seminal document, called “An Agenda for Peace Building”, which he defined as “actions to identify and support structures which will tend to strength and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict” and that “such actions are also needed to rebuild institutions and infrastructures torn apart by civil war and strife as

well as tackling the deepest causes of the conflict: economic despair, social injustice and political oppression”. Late Prof Boutros Ghali’s “Agenda for Peace” later gave rise to “Peace Support Operations” involving conflict prevention, conflict management and conflict transformation and made operational through peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. The seminal “Agenda for Peace” of 1992 was in response to a request by the UN Security Council for an “analysis and recommendation” to strengthen peacemaking and peacekeeping operations or activities of the United Nations around the world especially in the conflict afflicted areas. In 1994, another milestone was recorded when the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released a report, called “Human Security”, unfolding a new concept and approach to global security. The seminal Report called for people-centered and multi-disciplinary understanding of security (“Peopling Security”). It is deeply saddening that today, these great breakthroughs of the 90s have become a ‘tissue paper’, no thanks to the present leaders of the United Nations.

Understanding The Genesis Of The Israeli-Palestinian Armed Conflicts

The battle for the ownership and control of the “Holy Land” by the descendants or children of Abraham via Isaac, begat by Sarah and Ishmael, begat by Hagar had been a tortuous one and age-long. This had resulted to several ancient and modern bloody wars including five “Adult Crusades” and one “Children Crusade”. The recorded history of the bloody conflicts over the “Holy Land” started in A.D. 70 when the Roman Army led by Titus destroyed Jerusalem and when they had broken the last Jewish resistance in A.D.135, they renamed the region Judea- Palestine after the earlier inhabitants-the Philistines. This great Land was taken over by militants Muslims in A.D.636. It was then that Omar Ibn al-Khattab ordered the construction of the “Mosque of Omar (Ibn al-Khattab)”-called the “Dome of Rock”, presently regarded as the Muslims’ third holiest shrine in the world after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. In A.D. 1098, the Crusaders from Europe, raised by His Holiness, Pope Urban 11, who first struck in A.D.1095, freed the Holy Land from Muslim-Arabs and ruled it until A.D.1192 when Jerusalem again fell to Arab conquerors.

In A.D. 1517, the great Ottoman Turks overran Palestine, Egypt and the rest of North Africa and the Middle East, ruling them for the next 400 years ending in 1917 when the British forces led by Gen. Allenby attacked the Turks during the World War 1. With the aid of the Lawrence of Arabia, the British conquered all of Palestine and accepted a mandate from the League of Nations to administer the region for 30 years pending final disposition of the Holy Land to local authorities. In 1921, the two-thirds of the Palestine region were given to the Arabs for a Palestine homeland. Abdullah al-Hussein, son of a Bedouin prince of the Hejaz region of Arabia, was proclaimed the Emir and, in 1946, he became the first king of the Kingdom of Transjordan. During Israel’s war of independence in 1948, the British-trained Arab forces from the Legion of Jordan conquered the West Bank area including East Jerusalem. In order to include this conquered territory into the Kingdom of Jordan, the name was changed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It was ruled by King Hussein, grandson of King Abdullah, until his forces were driven off by the Israelis in the Six Day War of 1967. The area west of the Jordan River is now referred to as the “occupied territory of the West Bank”, which had remained the hotbed of the age-long conflicts between the PA/Arab/Hamas and the State of Israel.

In 1917, the British, who had conquered all of Palestine from the Turks, signed, in London, the Balfour Declaration favoring the establishment of a national homeland in Palestine for Jewish people and, when her mandate expired in 1948, Israel became a nation again for the first time in 2,500 years. And the next day, May 15, 1948, army contingents from Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan and Iraq attacked the infant Israeli nation so as to crush and chase her out of the “Palestinian land”. The bloody military expedition failed and Egypt signed an armistice agreement on February 24, 1949.

Lebanon signed it on March 23, 1949; Transjordan on April 3, 1949; and Syria on July 20, 1949, while Iraq refused to sign.

On March 4, 1949, Israel was accepted by the Security Council of the UN and, on May 12, 1949, the General Assembly of the UN approved Israel as the 59th member of the United Nations.

•Being Part 1 text of a statement issued on Thursday, October 19, 2023 in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety). It was signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi; Chinwe Umeche Esquire, Head of Democracy and Good Governance; Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire, Head of Publicity; and Ndidiamaka Bernard, Esquire, Head of Int’l Justice and Human Rights. Intersociety can be reached via Mobile/WhatsApp/Mobile: +2348174090052; Email: info@intersociety-ng.org; Website: https://intersociety-ng.org

PHOTO CAPTION •A convoy of Israeli tanks at sunset near the southern Israeli border with Gaza, October 12, 2023. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90

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