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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has described October 7, 2023, as the darkest day in modern Israeli and Jewish history.
Freeman, who spoke at an event marking the second memorial anniversary of the massacre of over 1200 Israelis by Hamas, also said on that day, thousands of Hamas terrorists poured across Israel’s border, murdering entire families in their homes, raping women, torturing children and burning people alive.
The event, which took place in Abuja, had in attendance, the Jewish community in Nigeria, members of the diplomatic corps and friends of Israel, among others.
Freeman said: “They did not come to fight soldiers. They came to slaughter innocents. They came to extinguish Jewish life. The images from that day, the charred homes of Kibbutz Be’eri, the blood-soaked grounds of the Nova music festival, the kidnapped hostages dragged into Gaza, are etched into the souls of our people. They are etched into history. For us, there will forever be too many empty chairs at too many empty tables.” The Israeli envoy further said over 250 men, women and children were kidnapped on that day.
He recalled that last week, Israel finally welcomed home the last 20 living hostages.
Freeman, however, said: “Yet the bodies of 16 of our brothers remain in Hamas’s hands, and we cannot truly move on until every last one is returned. Yet, as Israel mourned, something else happened. Around the world, the very victims of terror were blamed. Instead of solidarity, we were met with slander.”
Freeman also said that in the last two years, Israel has faced a torrent of lies, distortions and blood libels, including perverse accusations of genocide, even as it facilitated the entry of over two million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza,….
vaccinations of children against disease and took unprecedented steps to avoid civilian casualties.
“Our soldiers sent warnings before battles, fought with restraint, guided by international law and motivated by a moral commitment to protect life and truth.
“Friends, since October 7, the threat to Jews everywhere has grown more acute. In just two years, there have been more than 150 terrorist attacks and plots targeting Jews in over 40 countries. Synagogues have been burned in five continents.
“No other hatred operates with such global coordination. But this hatred is not new.
“Jew-hatred is not invented anew in each generation; it resurfaces in new disguises. When it is no longer acceptable to say ‘I hate Jews,’ the hatred is dressed up as ‘I hate Israel.’
“That is why the same colleague, the same professor, the same neighbour who never joined a single humanitarian cause in their lives suddenly marches against Israel because it involves the Jews.
“We know this story well. From Spain to Poland, from Georgia to Germany, Jews were expelled, massacred and gassed. And still, we rose again. After 1948, nearly a million Jews were driven from Arab lands, including Baghdad, Aleppo and Tripoli. Their homes, businesses and synagogues were seized or burned. The world offered no refugee camps, no UN agencies, no international aid. And so, with no one to take us in, we continued to build a home of our own.
“Let us also remember that in 2005, Israel left Gaza. We uprooted our communities, withdrew our soldiers and hoped Gaza would become a neighbour living side by side in peace. Instead, Hamas seized control, building tunnels, not schools; rockets, not hospitals; hatred, not hope,” he added.
Freeman also stated that on October 7, the world saw the horrific results of that choice.
“They say they hate Israel because of borders, because of policies, because of land. But, Hamas did not attack borders that day. They targeted families. They dragged hostages into tunnels. They sought to break our spirit. And even as we buried our dead, much of the world turned against us.
“College students praised the killers. Protesters waved swastikas. ‘Gas the Jews’ was graffitied in Berlin. Jewish students were locked inside libraries and told to hide their Stars of David. Jews were shot in the US, stabbed in France, murdered in the UAE and run over in the UK. All this happened while our hostages bled in Gaza’s tunnels.
“But, what did the world expect would happen as they ignored the calls on their streets to “Globalize the Intifada”
“So, no, this is not about borders. They hated us long before 1948, long before 1967, long before a single checkpoint existed. What they hate is the stubbornness of Israel, the refusal to disappear. They hate the courage of people who continue to live, thrive and rise again and again.
“But, Israel is not built on pity. Israel is built on courage, on faith, on history.
“We are not foreigners in Israel, we did not colonise the land of Israel; we returned to it. The Jews have lived in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, Tzfat and every part of our land for over 3,000 years. Through exile and dispersion, we prayed toward Jerusalem and we remembered Jerusalem at every wedding, every festival and at every dinner table.
“We revived our language, planted forests, gathered exiles, welcomed survivors and built a modern technology-based economy in a reborn nation. Israel was not created because of the Holocaust. It was created in spite of it. And today, ‘Never Again’ is not just a slogan. It is the Iron Dome that protects children in Sderot. It is the Israeli pilot in the sky. It is the 18-year-old girl in olive uniform, standing guard so that our children can sleep at night.
“Friends, as we remember the victims of October 7, we also express sympathy for the innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives in this war; a war Israel never wanted, a war Israel never started, a war that was forced upon us.
“We grieve for every innocent soul, because we value life; all life.
“We are grateful to those who have stood by us, to friends of Israel across the world, to the nations that have stood with us throughout, and in particular, I must express our thanks to President Donald Trump, for his steadfast support, his courage in recognising truths that others ignored, and his unique efforts in bringing our hostages home and helping to finally end this war.
“And finally, our prayer is that out of this darkness, a better future may yet emerge, not only for Israelis but for Palestinians, for our region and for the world. A future where children grow up not under the shadow of rockets or the grip of terror but under the light of peace.
“May the souls of the victims be bound in the bond of life. May their memory be a blessing. And may we, the living, ensure that their sacrifice strengthens our resolve to defend truth, justice and the right of the Jewish people to live free in their ancestral homeland,” Freeman prayed.
