Over the years, Ghana has been a strong member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), an organisation of states that did not formally associate themselves either with the West or the collapsed Soviet Union.
Though it was Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah that led Ghana to join NAM, the country has since adopted the policy of non-alignment in all of her international dealings.
Last Friday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, reportedly declared in Washington DC at a programme organised by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that Ghana was in firm support of Israel and Ukraine.
The pronouncement came at the time United Nations and other humanitarian agencies were calling on Israeli government to open a humanitarian corridor for the troubled Gaza strip.
According to a Ghana News Agency report, President Akufo-Addo argued that, “in these difficult moments of their survival”, Ghana cannot turn her back at Israel. The cruel killing of civilians in both Israel and the Gaza strip is beyond human comprehension.
The senseless killings, in our opinion, could have been avoided if Hamas had not entered into the Israeli territory to carry out the execution of the civilian population.
According to the international media reports, over fourteen hundred Israeli civilians were killed by Hamas during their short terroristic invasion into southern Israel. No human being in his or her right of sense of mind will support the conduct of Hamas. What they did can best be described as an act of terrorism. The civilians they killed and over hundred others they have taken as hostages did not commit any crime against the state of Palestine.
To us at The Chronicle, Hamas should have directed whatever anger they have against the Israeli military and NOT the defenceless civilian population. Since Israel sees the conduct of Hamas as existential threat, they have the right to also react, but the manner they are going about it is also another major problem. Bombs are being dropped in civilian populated areas in the Gaza strip killing hundreds of them, including children in the name of exterminating Hamas.
Looking at Israel’s military might, they would achieve their aim, but that would come at a great expense to the civilian population. Though they are yet to launch a ground operation into Gaza, close to three thousand civilians have already been killed. One can, therefore, imagine how many people are going to be killed after Israel has succeeded in achieving their aim of destroying Hamas.
This is the reason why the world is pleading with Israel to tamper justice with mercy and use diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict. It is upon the basis of this that The Chronicle thinks it was wrong for our president to have made a public statement in faraway US that Ghana was behind Israel in this difficult time.
As we earlier alluded, the conduct of Hamas, which has brought untold hardships upon its people, was very bad, but if we are to ensure peace in that region, we should not be seen to be taking sides in the conflict, especially when Ghana, as a country, is still a member of NAM.
Since we have diplomatic relationship with Israel and most of the Arab states, the best option available to us as a state is to play the role of neutrality. In this way, whatever advice we will give to the combatants in the conflict would be accepted. We hope both the president and his foreign ministry will agree us.
