Dr. MontaserAbuzaid, the Ambassador of the state of Palestine to Nigeria in this interview with our correspondent talks on the Israel occupation of Palestine, and the way forward for peace in the Middle East. Excerpts:
The Israel-Palestine feud is not new but in the past week, it has metamorphosed into bombings, can you shed more light on this?
The latest aggression against the Palestinian people started since 14th November, using military planes, rockets, and armour tanks of Israel in bombing the Gaza strip Killing children, women and even journalists.
Of course it is against all international law and human rights as well. Lately journalists are the most targeted as the building housing Al- aqsa television was hit by an Israeli rocket killing two journalists and injuring many. Similarly when the delegation from the league of Arab states comprising turkey, Iraq and Jordan were in a hospital to access the level of casualties, a rocket hit the press crew and two journalists died on the spot injuring another two.
The Israelis have also resorted to bombing of hospitals where injured people are being treated, this is against humanity. Hospitals shouldn?t be attacked under any circumstance. The Israelis claim to be defending themselves with these acts. But they are not under any form of occupation, we the Palestinians have been under occupation since 1948. They have refused us to have our own state, disregarding all the truce to foster peace in the Middle East. It is good the Nigerian public knows what the real situation in Gaza is. We are not calling on journalists to be on our side, as against what the Israelis do.
All we want is just a fair account of the situation as it unfolds. ?Without respecting humanity, the Israeli ambassador was in the media saying ?we will continue to bomb the Palestinian people until the Palestinian people stop attacking us.?, It is important for the world to know that Palestinians are not attacking the Israelis, where are the weapons we have used in attacking them? Instead the Palestinians are being killed. It is also worthy of mention that Israel in 1967 also occupied territories in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.
What are the reasons for this aggression?
The Israelis claim we started attacking them, this is not true. They launched the attacks on us and the main reason for this because there is serious decision by the Palestinian leadership led by President Mahmoud Abbas to go to the general assembly to ask for non-member state.
They have refused this by enticing member countries of the United Nations with the support of the United States not to vote for us, meanwhile it?s our right. Our request for membership at the United Nations was submitted last year and the date for voting is on the 29th of November 2012, a day which doubles as a solider date by the UN as international day in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Two main reasons are responsible for Israel?s antagonism against the Palestine state. First if Palestine becomes a member, the occupation ceases because it has been provided that no member state of the UN can occupy another member state.
Secondly, with Palestine as a member we have full rights to take any other member state or even individual who have offended us such as Netanyahu to the International Criminal Court in Holland. As it stands, even the President of Palestine cannot leave his shores without the permission of Israel. This is abuse of the international law. Most of Palestinians cannot go back to their homes today because Israel doesn?t permit so. Israel must be taught to respect the law, because it is simply using the law of the forest where the stronger animal kills the less strong animals at will without moral justification.
What is the position of the Arabs states concerning the peace process?
In 2002, there was a conference in Beirut where King Abdullah Ibn- Abdulazeez proposed a sound diplomatic relations with Israel from 22 Arab states on the condition of the implementation of the United Nations Resolutions from the Israeli side of Resolution no. 194 and no. 242, which they have refused to adopt. This is simply because Israel feels occupation of the territories of its neighbours will guarantee security. But the Arab countries are wholly with us and we can count on them anytime.
We have recordings of Mr Shimon Perez where he rightly said, ?the reason we have terrorism today is occupation, and we cannot occupy the Palestinian people forever?.
The OIC is at the middle of this, what role has it played?
The organisation of Islamic countries just finished a meeting in Djibouti and they condemned the attacks from Israel and have pledged their support for the people of Palestine with a call for all its member states to vote for Palestine at the UN general assembly.
Reports show the problem is with only Hamas, can you comment on that?
The attack has been on every nook and cranny of Palestine, and bombs don?t distinguish between Hamas, Fatha or the Democratic Front. These are political ideologies that are shared even within households; Israel is waging a war on Palestinians not Hamas. All parties have signed agreements to work with one another, and are defending the territory in a unison fashion. Besides, Israel has been on the front to establish chaos between Hamas and Fatha.
In summary the essence of this persecution from Israel is to destabilize the Palestinian leadership for them, pursue the cause of a Palestine membership on in the UN on the 29th of November 2012. This coincides with the UN day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The reason the United Nations set aside this day in solidarity with the Palestinian people was in respect of the agreement of 1947 that two states will emerge from the Palestine territory, thus Israel and Palestine, while Palestine is still struggling to achieve this.
This is not fair. Mind you, Palestinians have forfeited 78% of the Palestinian territory for peace to rain, but Israel isn?t contented with that, hence the massacre in Gaza and the west Bank. And most of the people being resettled to Gaza are not Jews; they come from Russia, Ukraine and other parts of the world. We appreciate the support of Nigeria for their excellent support of the actualization of the Palestine state and its people, and the African union for the recognition we have gained from them.
What can the African Union do to foster the peace process?
We are optimistic the African union in its entity will vote for with countries like Nigeria, as they voted for us last year at UNESCO, in Paris making the state of Palestine a full member of UNESCO. We received tremendous support from a lot of European countries as they also voted in our favour, and this has given us the courage to push further to liberate the Palestinian people from Israeli occupation.
What is the way for peace?
Implementation of the United Nations resolutions, Security Council and General Assembly is the key to peace in the Middle East, and peace in the Middle East means peace the world over. The claims of the Israelis are all false. The sophistication of the Israeli weapons currently deplored against the Gaza people is highly uncalled for as Abachi helicopters, F16?s fighter jets are used to kill civilians.
The minister of foreign affairs of Turkey was crying when he came to Gaza, he saw the way human rights were being violated; people were being killed ?old and young. Nobody is being speared in the attacks because even the office of the United Nations at Unarwa was bombed.
The human rights commission in Geneva, Switzerland condemned the Israelis aggression against civilian. We have updated the United Nations about these crimes against humanity and we ask the international community to intervene so as to avoid future terrorist acts against the Palestine people.
