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By Chukwudi Nweje
As the Israel/Hamas conflict enters day 10, Prince Adewole Adebayo, a lawyer and former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party SDP in the 2023 general election in Nigeria has called on parties involved to embrace peace.
Adebayo said that both the Jews and the Palestinians are victims of European politics; he said that restoring peace to the Middle East is a debt the international community owes the world and called on parties to the conflict to embrace the Oslo Accords.
He said, “Whatever your attitude was to the Middle East peace process as at October 6, 2023 is a pre-qualification to comment on the dastardly and heinous events of October 7 and the unacceptable and unlawful reaction that followed.
“In the end, the rights of all the communities involved are the responsibility of the international community because the innocent people of that region are paying unwarranted prices in lives and limbs for problems they did not cause or can be expected to solve.
“The Middle East peace process is for now a pawn in the internal politics of the United States and hostage to the problematic fortunes of some leading Israeli politicians. A true friend of Israel would not support any further expansion of settlements in occupied territories and would give the PLO some face-saving concessions in the West Bank while finding a diplomatic way to let Gaza strip blockage end.
“The best we in the international community have come up with is the two-state solution and a determination of the status of Jerusalem. If we can summon sufficient statesmanship to get the Oslo Accord to work again, we would have redeemed our consciences a bit. The Jews are a victim of racial politics of Europe and the Palestinians are the victims of a half-hearted attempt by Europeans to pay their debt by writing a cheque drawn against an innocent third party account. I don’t think that the future of any community or State is bright in that region if the only guarantee of peace is their relative firepower. Peace is more valuable in the prospectus of the Israelis than of anyone else.”
The Oslo process began after negotiations in Oslo, Norway that resulted in both the recognition of Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in bilateral negotiations.
The Oslo I Accord was signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993 while the Oslo II Accord was signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995.
Adebayo said that Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and other countries in the region must find ways for peaceful co-existence.
He said that Israel, which was created in 1947, has come to stay in the Arab-dominated region but that it cannot be sustained by force from outside, which he noted has turned the region into a “permanent war camp”.
He said that no party in the region has decisive war-tech advantage over their neighbours to believe it is “so militarily strong that peace is unilaterally assured”.
He added, “Related to the foregoing is the need to accord Iran her respectable standing in the region along the line of P5+1 that was working out well until the internal politics of the United States torpedoed the Iran nuclear deal.
“In summary, Israel is destined to stay put in that region but it cannot be sustained by force from outside or turning herself into a permanent war camp. Peace is possible and advisable; no party can have any decisive war-tech advantage over their neighbours. History has shown that the Arab League member States have demonstrated good faith since the Camp David Accord. Israel too has internal contradictions that need to be resolved in favour of the peace process. There should be nobody who still believes that they can be so militarily strong that peace is unilaterally assured”, he said.
