Israel’s Ambassador to Ghana, Roey Gilad, has clarified why his country could not support a recent United Nations resolution on reparations, pointing to concerns over what he describes as an attempt to rank historical atrocities.
Speaking on JoyNews, Ambassador Gilad said Israel’s opposition was not a rejection of the suffering caused by the transatlantic slave trade, but rather a principled objection to describing it as “the gravest” crime against humanity.
“Our problem with this resolution was exactly that — the gravest,” he stated. “There were quite several crimes against humanity… Who are we to judge which is the gravest and which is less grave?”
He cited several historical atrocities, including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the Rwandan genocide, arguing that placing one above the other creates an unnecessary and problematic hierarchy.
The ambassador revealed that Israel, alongside countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and members of the European Union, had engaged Ghana’s delegation at the UN before the vote. According to him, they proposed a compromise to describe the slave trade as “one of the gravest” crimes instead.
“There is no doubt that had the resolution called the Atlantic slave trade one of the gravest, we had no problem,” he explained.
The resolution, which reportedly secured strong backing at the UN, is part of ongoing global conversations around reparations for slavery and colonial injustices.
Ghana has been at the forefront of advocacy on the issue, positioning itself as a leading voice for African and diaspora concerns.
However, Israel maintains that while it acknowledges the depth of suffering caused by slavery, it cannot support language that appears to rank human tragedies.
“We believe that making a hierarchy and saying which was greater than the other is a mistake,” Ambassador Gilad added.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com