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| H.E Abdalfatah Alsattari, Palestinian Ambassador to Ghana |
By Duke
Tagoe
His
Excellency, Abdalfatah Alsattari, the Palestinian ambassador to Ghana says the
Israeli occupation of Palestine is at the stages of disappearing and will not last
because of its illegality according to international law.
He was
speaking at the International Day of Solidarity with the people of Palestine
set aside by the United Nations to be commemorated on the 29th of November
every year.
He said
the day is commemorated globally because the truth lies on the side of
Palestine and the cause of the Palestinian people is a cause of justice.
According
to the Palestinian Ambassador, although the lives of thousands of elderly men
and women have been claimed by Israeli atrocities in Palestine in Israel’s
quest to annex more lands, the children of Palestine know the names of all
settlements that have been built on stolen lands after the Oslo agreement.
“The
Palestinian children know that six million Palestinians were uprooted from
their lands and they cannot return to their respective homes. They are also
aware that seven thousand Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails with 350
of them being children and 240 of them being women and young girls whilst water
bodies and beautiful trees have been destroyed and cut down” he was speaking at
the Palestinian Embassy to mark the occasion.
He
expressed deep frustration over check points that separate Palestinian cities
and villages through an apartheid system in the West Bank and in the Gaza
Strip.
Mr
Alsattari insisted that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state
with East Jerusalem as its capital must be a prerequisite for an end to the war
and occupation.
He called
on the international community to continue the peace process in Palestine with
a sense of justice in order that “our peoples will live in peace and away from
the hatred and killings that has accompanied the occupation and bring to an end
to the historical injustice suffered by our people.”
The
Palestinian Ambassador expressed great excitement at the 170 states that
expressed their support two weeks ago, to the Palestinian people towards
achieving self-determination adding that “anyone who opposes the existence and
history of Palestine is just like a person who opposes the existence of oxygen
in air.”
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| Christine Evans-Klock |
Christine
Evans-Klock, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ghana said the
International Day of Solidarity with Palestine is observed every year because
on that day in 1947, the general assembly adopted resolution 181 which provided
for the establishment in Palestine, a Jewish State and an Arab State.
According
to Madam Klock, currently, 137 States in the United Nations recognise the State
of Palestine whilst the flag of Palestine flies alongside those of all member
states.
In a
message read on the behalf of Mr Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United
Nations by Madam Klock, Mr Moon warned that without urgent steps to revive the
political perspectives of the Palestinian crisis, there could be the
entrenchment of one state.
According
to Ban Ki Moon, whilst “the recent years have witnessed two unsuccessful
attempts at negotiating a peaceful settlement, three armed conflicts with
several thousands dead, the vast majority of them being Palestinians and an
expanding illegal Israeli settlement enterprise, the state of Israel risks
undermining its democratic values and the character of its society.”
Mr Moon
expressed worry at the humanitarian emergency in Gaza with two million
Palestinians struggling with crumbling infrastructure, a paralysed economy and
tens of thousands displaced and awaiting reconstruction of their homes.
Historical
Background to the Palestinian Conflict:
At the
beginning of the 19th century, a group in Europe which largely
represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population known as Zionists
decided to colonise the land of Palestine already inhabited by a multicultural
population of Muslims, Christians and a Jewish population with Muslims in the
majority.
When they
first decided to create a Jewish homeland, some of the places they first
considered were in Africa and the Americas. Palestine came in later.
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| A cross-section of members of the diplomatic corps at the event |
Whilst
the indigenous populations were first receptive to the idea of Jewish
immigration to the land of Palestine, they became deeply worried and frightened
when some of them began expressing the wish of taking land for the creation of
a State. Sustained fighting leading to an escalated violence erupted.
The
United Nations decided in 1947 to step and ensue peace but it did the
unthinkable when it chose to assist the Zionist elements to carve out or annex
Palestinian land for the creation of an Zionist state to be called Israel. By
this action, the United Nations went contrary to the principle of “self
determination of all people” in which the people of Palestine must have a chance
at the creation of their own government enshrined in the charter of the United
Nations.
In the
face of immense pressure from Zionist elements in the United States and in
Britain, the United Nations suggested that more than 50 percent of Palestinian
land be given out to for the creation of a Jewish state, in spite of the
unsurmountable evidence that the Jewish population was made up of about 25% of
the total population.
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