Hiroshima inviting Israel to attend nuclear bombing anniversary ‘very unfortunate,’ says scholar
A leading legal scholar has told Anadolu that a call for Israel to participate in the annual peace event to be held in Hiroshima on the occasion of the US nuclear bombing of a city in Japan was “miserable.” “That Hiroshima does not grasp the fact it was victimised in a way Israel has victimised Palestinian people is very unfortunate,” said Richard Falk, an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.
Falk’s comments to Anadolu come as the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are set to mark the 79th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing by the US this week. While Nagasaki refused to extend an invitation to Tel Aviv, Hiroshima will host Israeli officials on Tuesday. Nagasaki will hold a similar event on Friday.
“And what Nagasaki is doing by not inviting Israel” to its observance of the bombing in World War II “is to make a statement that it does not want to be identified with a government that behaves that way,” Falk said, referring to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including its ongoing brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Since February this year, Moscow has been at war with Ukraine. While denying Russia and Belarus, Japan has done a volte-face under pressure from the activists. Now, the activists are raising their voices to press local authorities in Hiroshima to cancel the invitation to Tel Aviv amid cries of doublespeak.
A local administration in Hiroshima has appealed for an “immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.” There were several protests against Israel’s joining the program on Tuesday.
The Israeli war on Gaza ‘changed the discourse in Japan:
Saul Takahashi, professor of Osaka Jogakuin University teaching human rights and peace studies, told Arpan that after a “lot of protests and lots of discussions,” Japan had raised concerns following Hiroshima’s decision to invite Israel.
“So how can it be that a country that has been found by the International Court of Justice to be committing genocide plausibly? How can we invite them (Israel)? This is outrageous,” Takahashi told Anadolu. He said the genocide in Gaza has “changed discourse in Japan for sure.” “People are much more conscious; they are much more listening to the Palestine question. Especially young people, which are big, really big,” he said.
Reminiscing of his pre-Oct. In seven speeches about Palestine – where the majority of his audience then were elderly people, Takahashi said: “I was worried about the future of the movement (about Palestine in Japan).” Iran and Hamas claimed last week that Israel has assassinated Ismail Haniyeh—the leader of Hamas’ political bureau in the Iranian capital, Tehran, a credit which Israel has refrained from giving to itself or even denying.
