Civil society organizations asking Malawi government to revisit its stand on war in Gaza

By Jamal Jama

LILONGWE, Malawi (AA) - Some civil society organizations in Malawi on Monday asked the Malawi government to revisit its stand on the raging war in Gaza “because its current approach is against its values of peace and respect for humanity.”

The stance of the southern African nation was a clear demonstration that it is in “full support of the genocide being perpetrated by Israel,” said AssaboniPhiri, national coordinator of Malawi Palestine Solidarity Movement (MPSM), a pro-Palestine organization.

Phiri’s remarks coincide with the first anniversary of Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave, which has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since last year.

“Malawi is a signatory to a number of instruments on peace and all along we have valued peace and promoted dialogue whenever there are conflicts, but it’s very disturbing that the country has chosen to support Israel since the war broke out disregarding the suffering of women and children in Gaza. This is a complete departure from our belief in peace and respect for humanity,” Phiri told reporters in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe.

“But after one year, it was high time to change our stand in consideration of the level of damage that the war has caused to human lives. We have to stop aiding Israel in its pursuit to commit genocide in Gaza. Let’s respect our values for peace,” he added.

Nancy Tembo, the country’s foreign minister, told Anadolu that Israel “is our long-time ally and true friend, but this doesn’t mean that we find merriment in the loss of lives on both sides of the conflict.”

“We are a country that has its own values. We value peace and we have respect for human life. We are not happy with the loss of lives on both sides of the war. We are therefore praying that there should be a long-lasting solution to find peace so that we can save lives from dying needlessly,” Tembo said.

The minister was non-committal to calls for her government to “withdraw its support” from Israel as the war rages.

Since the war broke out in Gaza, Malawi has demonstrated its solidarity with Israel directly or indirectly. In August, the southern African nation opened its diplomatic mission for the first time in Tel Aviv and further signed a labor exportation agreement between the two countries, which has so far seen jobless youths from the African nation, getting employed as farm laborers in Israel.

Political and social commentators have described Malawi’s solidarity with Israel as a “sign of a desperate nation that survives on handouts.”

George Phiri, a political analyst, told Anadolu that the country’s current stand on the war is a “clear manifestation of a nation that is bent on pleasing foreign powers for its survival.”

“Our stand is a clear demonstration of our attempt to please foreign powers which are fighting alongside Israel in the war. As a nation, we can’t afford to work against these powers, because we need them for our survival. Since independence, we survive on the goodwill of Western powers,” said Phiri.

While Abdul Azizi Yasin, a social commentator, described Malawi’s current stand as “a sign of desperation.”

“We are unable to take an independent stance as a nation due to desperation. We have lost our moral values as a nation because we don’t have what it takes to stand on our own,” said Yasin.

Malawi has been in close ties with Israel since 1964 when it got independence from the British. Its close ties to Israel, have sometimes been described as “controversial.”