To the Ambassador of Israel to Ghana: Let My People Go

Open Letter to His Excellency, the Ambassador of Israel to Ghana

To: His Excellency, Ambassador of Israel to Ghana

Subject: Israel's Vote Against Ghana's UNGA Resolution A/80/L.48

Your Excellency,

History does not forget; it only waits for clarity.

Only weeks ago, your high office called on Ghana to stand firmly with Israel against the perceived threat from Iran. You sought our diplomatic solidarity in a matter you rightly consider vital to your nation's security and survival.

Yet when the moment called for reciprocity, the answer was silence and then opposition.

On 25 March 2026, Ghana led the United Nations in adopting Resolution A/80/L.48. The resolution did not seek to reorder the moral universe. It simply affirmed a profound and long-contested truth: that the transatlantic trafficking in human beings and the racialised system of chattel enslavement rank among the gravest crimes against humanity. It passed with 123 votes in favour. Israel stood among the very few who voted against it.

We have listened carefully to your explanation - that the resolution risks creating a hierarchy of suffering, potentially diminishing the singular horror of the Holocaust. But must the recognition of one people's agony come at the erasure of another's?

In the Book of Exodus, Moses stood before Pharaoh with a command, not a plea: “Let my people go.” It was not a negotiation. It was a moral line drawn against bondage.

For centuries, enslaved Africans in the New World heard their own voice in that ancient command. In spirituals sung under the shadow of the lash, they echoed: “Go down, Moses… Tell old Pharaoh: Let my people go.” Their Egypt was the slave ship and the plantation. Their Pharaoh wore many faces. Yet the demand endured — the restoration of stolen humanity.

Ghana's resolution is that timeless cry reborn in our age: let my people go, from the chains of historical denial, from selective silence, and from the reluctance to fully acknowledge the depth of ancestral suffering.

President John Dramani Mahama reminded the Assembly with piercing clarity: “Truth begins with language. There was no such thing as a slave - there were human beings who were trafficked and enslaved.”

Across Africa, the Caribbean, and much of the Global South, that truth resonated. It was not a call for competition in suffering, but for completeness in memory.

Your Excellency, the State of Israel carries within its very foundation the enduring memory of Exodus and the solemn vow of “Never Again.” These are not merely historical markers; they are moral commitments that have shaped global conscience.

When a nation formed in the shadow of liberation and remembrance turns away from another people's plea for recognition of their own historic bondage, especially after seeking that people's solidarity, history takes careful note.

Ghana does not seek to diminish any people's suffering. We do not ask that one tragedy be weighed against another. Rather, we call for an honest and expansive moral vision, one that acknowledges multiple histories of pain without fear or hierarchy.

Our call is not accusatory; it is invitational. It is a call to dialogue: on apology, on the restitution of cultural heritage, on reparative justice, and on safeguards against the recurrence of such systemic dehumanization in new and evolving forms.

Moral consistency cannot be selective. It demands that we extend to others the same recognition we claim for ourselves. Anything less risks turning memory into privilege rather than principle.

Will Israel remain opposed to the cry “Let my people go,” or rise to a higher moral consistency where one wound does not cancel another, but where all wounds are acknowledged within our shared humanity?

The eyes of Africa, the restless spirits of the Middle Passage, and generations yet unborn are watching.

The choice, as ever, rests with the conscience of nations and the judgment of history.

Yours in the restless pursuit of a more honest world,

Seth K. Awuku
Takoradi

Author Bio:
Seth K. Awuku is a Ghanaian writer with a background in law, political science, and international relations. He writes on governance, diplomacy, and global justice.

Principal, Sovereign Advisory Ltd
Takoradi
Tel; 0243022027
Email: [email protected]