An open letter to Roey Gilad; Israeli Ambassador to Ghana

I despise very few jobs because at my core, I believe in labor – honest labor, at that. Yours, Mr. Roey Gilad, makes me sick.

One can imagine and perhaps even sit with the dishonour of representing a boss, an organisation, or an entity that they disagree with; however, to represent and actively defend the actions of a country that has occupied another for the last 77 years and now carries out a public genocide and mass extermination campaign against its people is morally depraved and inexcusable.

I came across your work after your interview on national television, where you asserted that “Israeli interests and Ghanaian interests are intertwined.”

Whilst there is a temptation to entertain this thought or even pass it off as diplomatic-speak, there is nothing further from the truth. Israel, from its modern, political inception in 1948 (important to distinguish from the Biblical Kingdom of Israel), has waged a steady campaign of institutionalised racism, Jewish supremacy, and apartheid rule - the very antithesis to democracy – against the Palestinian population.

With a system deliberately designed to wipe out Palestinian life, Israel is now carrying out a full-scale genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and a slower, more calculated erasure of those in the West Bank.

In the full glare of the world, 50,000 precious children – entire universes – have been brutally killed or injured by Israel in the Gaza Strip in the last two years. What interests – real or imagined – does Ghana, a peace-loving nation, have to do with your genocidal nation-state project, Mr Gilad?

From Ghana’s inception, we have been a beacon of Global South anti-imperial struggle, with Kwame Nkrumah – our first president – advocating for the dismantling of colonial and neo-imperialist structures in and beyond Africa.

Surely, this righteous fury would not have missed Israel – a settler colonial entity enacting a brutal illegal occupation on Palestinians.

Ghana’s and Africa’s commitment to the liberation of Palestine is not a recent phenomenon. As early as 1955, 29 African and Asian countries, representing about 1.5 billion people in the world, united under the banner of collective liberation, met up in Bandung, Indonesia – to discuss the political and economic independence of Global Southern states.

Significant amongst their discussions was overwhelming support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people, born from the recognition that their struggles were interconnected.

Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary Burkinabé leader, about 30 years later in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, lamented the plight of the valiant Palestinian people whose “families which [sic] have been splintered and split up and are wandering throughout the world seeking asylum.”

Whilst some will argue our national energies are best served focusing on domestic issues – a claim that is not entirely wrong – a holistic consideration of our anti-imperial legacy compels us to co-struggle in the spirit of global liberation with people whose necks are under the boot of colonial oppression.

Mr. Gilad, like many Ghanaians, unfortunately, I also believed in Israel’s chosenness and unquestioned rights to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea based on my Christian Zionist interpretations of the scriptures.

Your criminal governments over the years have successfully manipulated these sacred texts to suggest that God is a real estate agent invested in giving Palestinian land to Israel, even if it meant slaughtering their children. As survivors of colonisation, Ghanaians too have heard that story.

The story of a god too impoverished to grant us freedom unless we paid his representatives – British and Portuguese colonisers – with our blood and bodies.

This same god is who Zionist genocidaires have built an altar to with Palestinians as the burnt offering. This cannot be the good news of the gospel many of the Ghanaian faithful profess and attempt to live by.

Therefore, when you reference Ghanaians’ deep love for Israel as evidenced by the ubiquity of Israeli flags in the country, you signal to a direct manifestation of this insidious disinformation campaign run by your governments.

In response to the praiseworthy comments of Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, at the 80th UNGA session, where he rightly asserted that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, you arrogantly responded that the conflict was “more complex than portrayed” and Israel is working to protect civilians.

Israel has repeatedly violated international law by attacking churches, mosques, schools, and aid facilities; kidnapping and sexually assaulting medical personnel; burning civilians in their tents; and using starvation as a weapon of war, amongst other heinous crimes. Your statement, at best, betrays your deep disillusionment or, at worst, your perception of Ghanaians as simple-minded individuals.

I am flabbergasted that you can in good conscience defend Israel, which has bombed every university in Gaza and denied thousands of students education, whilst your own daughter happily studies architecture at one of the best universities in Boston.

The hypocrisy! Which other country can flagrantly contravene international law and jeopardise global security and still claim victimhood?

This disposition bears striking resemblance to that of colonial British authorities in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising of 1952, when British forces, after massacring civilians, argued that they had died “after drinking water” – a failed attempt to absolve themselves of guilt.

Israel, much like colonial Britain, bears full responsibility for the unspeakable evil we are witnessing in the Gaza Strip.

Zionists like yourself, Mr. Gilad, hell-bent on defending the state of Israel, will immediately revert to accusations of antisemitism or a lack of experience in the land as justification for Israel’s crimes.

Whilst antisemitism is abhorrent like many other forms of bigotry, a critique of Zionism – a political ideology being used to genocide a people – does not equate to the hatred of Jewish people.

After all, there are many Jewish individuals and groups who loudly assert, “Not in our name!”

Secondly, having travelled the length and breadth of Israel-Palestine multiple times and even lived in Bethlehem, I have seen first-hand apartheid: Palestinian children tried in military courts, Palestinians unable to drive on certain roads, unequal water access, illegal home demolitions, and repeated settler violence, including extra-judicial killings, with no consequences.

What more do we need to witness to conclude that Israel’s sole aim – like other settler colonies – is the eradication of the Palestinian people?

Words are insufficient to describe the collective horror and anger many around the world, including Ghanaians who recently called for the cultural boycott of the Israeli film festival in Accra – feel at the genocide we are witnessing.

It is a stain on the global conscience that for the last two years we have allowed Israel to steal, kill, and destroy all that is sacred.

Israel’s actions and the support of Western countries have reified what we have always known: Palestinian blood can be spilt without consequence.

To us who have been colonised before, Gaza is our compass. Gaza carries our sorrows and hopes. Palestine’s victory is our revenge on imperialism.

Mr. Gilad, posterity will not be kind to you and the government you represent. Your hands are dripping with blood. Please keep them away from us.

May we see a free Palestine in our lifetimes.