Iqraa Academy, Abuja, at the weekend, staged an art performance in solidarity with Palestine.
The performance was carried out by children in order to draw the attention of the world to the alleged killing of children in Gaza by the Israeli military.
Gaza militants took about 240 captives from southern Israel in an unprecedented October 7 attack that Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
In response, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an aerial bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza that the Hamas government says has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
Speaking at the end of the art performance, Kokah Farrukh, one of the organisers of the event, said: “We wanted to do something for the Palestinian children. As you know, all of us celebrate Children’s Day when a part of the world, the children are dying and another part of the world, they are celebrating. What type of celebration is that?
“This is just to convey the message that war is not the answer to anything, come to the table and talk. So this is just an awareness campaign that children belong to everybody.”
On her part, Tessehil Sediri, called for a complete ceasefire, saying the four-day ceasefire deal was nothing.
“Ceasefire now, for goodness, for the blood of the children,…also for those 1.2 million people that have been displaced,” she said.
Speaking also, Hauwa Yasmeen Ismaila, one of the organisers, lamented that genocide was happening in Gaza and the world decided to look the other way.
“We, a group of sisters, came in partnership with Iqraa Academy to host this event to speak up as a form of protest for what is happening to children and women in Gaza.
“Hospitals are bombed, war crimes are committed right in front of us and all of us choose to keep quiet. Apartheid, genocide, destruction, displacement, death of babies, thousands of people forced to migrate from their homes, this is not acceptable,” she said.
She called on Nigerians to boycott Israeli products and services, stressing that by patronising Israel, Nigerians were indirectly sponsoring the war in Gaza.
