Just for clarity, Blessed Mhlanga did not make his speech at the United Nations, as many have tried to suggest; he was at a pro-Gaza genocide, Geneva-based international Jewish lobby NGO called UN Watch.

UN Watch, as its name suggests, is a private Jewish NGO that monitors the United Nations to ensure that there is no anti-Israel and anti-Jewish condemnation within the international body. It is associated with the American Jewish Committee and AIPAC and is not a human rights watchdog, hence it has been at the forefront of fighting South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Their offices are next to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, but what is interesting is that they never address the major issues being dealt with by the UNHRC, including Gaza, U.S. illegal unilateral sanctions on Third World countries, U.S. invasions, or the suffering and displacement of civilians affected by wars, bombings, invasions, or illegal sanctions by the West and Israel.

Their main focus over the past five years has disproportionately been anecdotal human rights violations claims by individuals in Zimbabwe and other Third World countries. As a result we have seen Fadzai Mahere, Hopewell Chinono and now Blessed Mhlanga being invited to speak to them, after their arrests in Zimbabwe. However they have never invited Palestinians to speak about the biggest systematic crime against humanity and genocide of our lifetime being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.

Now, why would a self-styled human rights watchdog invite individuals to speak about isolated individual allegations of human rights violations, without inviting Palestinians to talk about the greatest crimes against humanity happening in Gaza, or Venezuelans, Syrians, Iranian or Zimbabweans who have suffered under decades of illegal Western sanctions that have been flagged and condemned by the UN Human Rights Council and some by the International Court of Justice as crimes against humanity?

It is because they are not a human rights body created to fight against human rights abuses; rather, they are a racist Zionist international lobby disguised as an NGO, passing themselves off as part of the United Nations, to defend Israel’s genocide in Palestine and advance western hegemony.

What I do not understand, however, is why our government continues to tiptoe around Israel’s crimes against humanity in Gaza and pretending that Israel is a friend to Zimbabwe, when their government-sanctioned lobby is clearly targeting and undermining our national image by predominantly inviting anti-Zimbabwean activists—who supported illegal sanctions on civilians (a crime against humanity)—to come and tarnish the reputation of the country?