Sunday October 10, 2025
By Abdurahman Ibrahim Yusuf
As human beings, when we witness a fellow human subjected to immense suffering and torment, we naturally wish we could do something to stop the oppression and bring it to an end. But what happens when most of the victims of this suffering are women and children, killed relentlessly, day after day, in their hundreds, by one of the most modern armies in the world?
The carnage we’ve seen on our TV screens over the past 24 months, with women and children being slaughtered by the thousands, has horrified people around the world. While some nations, such as South Africa and several Latin American countries like Brazil and Venezuela, have taken a strong moral stand against this savagery and barbaric killing, acts that clearly amount to genocide, many Western governments that claim to champion human rights and international law have remained silent.
Not only have they refused to condemn Israel’s onslaught on the people of Gaza, but they continue to supply the Israeli war machine with even more weapons.
Meanwhile, with Israel blockading Gaza by sea and air, and neighbouring Arab countries sealing their borders, stopping food and medicine from entering, the situation has become desperate. If people don’t die from Israeli bombardments and drone strikes, they face malnutrition, disease, and starvation.
Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, its hospitals, schools, and roads, has deepened this crisis. Reports suggest that Israel and the United States have a long-term plan to expel Gaza’s residents entirely, relocate them to a third country, and then annex the land. Former U.S. President Donald Trump even once said it could be turned into “a holiday resort or riviera of the Middle East.”
According to recent news, two possible destinations for this forced relocation are Somaliland and Puntland.
While it is normal for nations to make political and economic deals to strengthen their security and economies, any arrangement that enables the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of an oppressed people from their indigenous land is an unforgivable crime. A crime so heinous that anyone complicit in it will be condemned, not only in their lifetime but for generations to come.
In conclusion, Somali people across the Horn of Africa have long understood and cherished the virtues and blessings of the people and the land of Al-Quds. They have always stood in solidarity with the Palestinians in their long struggle against oppression and occupation. As the famous Somali song declares:
“Cadaawahoodu waa cadaawaheena, Jaamacadda Carabta codkeenu waa hal qudha.” (“Their enemy is our enemy, and our voice in the Arab League is one.”)
Anyone who abandons that proud tradition, and aids or supports, directly or indirectly, the uprooting and expulsion of the Palestinian people for financial or worldly gain, will be remembered in history for the wrong reasons and may be cursed forever.
Abdurahman Ibrahim Yusuf
HND/BSC engineering
haybeibrahim53@gmail.com