Roey Gilad, the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, has quizzed how President John Dramani Mahama can judge that slavery is the ‘gravest crime against humanity’.
According to the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, he detailed the Atlantic slave trade, the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian genocide by the Ottomans, and the Tutsi genocide by the Hutus in Rwanda. Questioning who has the authority to judge which is the gravest and which is less grave.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews, aired on April 13, 2026, Roey Gilad explained why his country voted against the resolution, saying, “Of course, the Atlantic slave trade, the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian genocide by the Ottomans, the Tutsi genocide by the Hutus in Rwanda. Are we to judge which is the gravest and which is less grave?” he questioned.
“It is only this hierarchy that we could not agree on. There’s no doubt that had the resolution called the Atlantic slave trade one of the gravest, we would have had no problem, and we came very clearly to the Ghanaian delegation at the UN, not only us, but also the United States, the UK, the EU, Armenia and many others, and said, just drop the gravest.
“The gravest for us is a problem. We cannot sit in a hierarchy. We cannot say if the Atlantic slave trade was graver than the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Tutsi genocide or not. How can you judge what is graver than the other?” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has fired shots at critics against Ghana’s call for reparations to African countries over slavery, which was championed by him at the United Nations.
According to John Mahama, some critics are making Infantile arguments, suggesting that Africans were involved, so they shouldn’t talk about reparations.
Mahama highlighted that those arguments by critics are just trying to whittle down slavery, which has now been recognised as the gravest crime.
President Mahama detailed that, even when reparations were paid to slave owners for letting the slaves go, adding that even when the slave trade was abolished, slavemasters were compensated for letting their slaves go.
Speaking during the Presidential Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), President Mahama stated, “A few of our people, I don’t know whether for attention or popularity, criticised their achievement and tried to belittle it, and they made all kinds of infantile arguments. They say so, but Africans were involved… The crime was systematic. The ships that carried the slaves were insured by reputable insurance companies that are some of the richest in the world today because they profited from the slave trade. The ship owners made money.
“And listen to the important one, reparations were paid to slave owners for letting the slaves go. When they abolished the slave trade and said the slaves could go, they compensated the person who had enslaved somebody for loss of property. As recently as 2015, compensation was paid to people for losing their slaves… Slavery is recognised as the gravest crime, and you say, ‘oh, but Africans were involved’,” he fumed.
He added, “This was a whole system. They built ships, and they built the ships with measurements to make sure that the cargo could take the maximum amount of slaves. And you tell me that, you know, Africans were involved, so we shouldn’t talk about reparations… some people just want to whittle down what happened.”
President Mahama further highlighted, “If you know what happened to the slaves, nothing compares to it in everything that has happened in this world, to the 15 million people who were sent away, those who died. I’ll give you one example: a ship captain threw 134 slaves overboard to go and claim insurance, because your ancestors were cargo, and so if the ship lost cargo, there was insurance that compensated for the loss of cargo. And 134 slaves, he threw them overboard and went and filed an insurance claim for loss of cargo”.
Mahama further noted, “In the record of the Holocaust, there were Jews who were prison guards, the Jews who pointed out where other Jews were hiding. And yet the Holocaust is recognised as genocide and a crime against humanity. So why not the slave trade? Because some Africans were involved. It doesn’t absolve those who built the system and financed it, and so we’ll call them out. I don’t care what anybody says, we’ll call them out”