The situation in Gaza did not start on Saturday, it is preceded by 17 whole years of blockade, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Cyprus, Abdallah Attari, told KYPE, adding that Palestinians remain committed to a future where every life is precious and all people live with freedom and security
Asked to refer to the situation in Gaza after the blockade by Israel, he said that "the situation in Gaza did not start on Saturday, it precedes 17 whole years of blockade of 2.000.000 Palestinians in an area of 45 square kilometers".
"It is, in other words, an area 200 times smaller than Cyprus," he said.
He added that "for 17 years, the Israeli apartheid government has been creating suffocating conditions for the Palestinians in Gaza."
There, he continued, Palestinians have absolutely no rights and added that the water provided to them daily by the Israelis is much less than the required amount of water for a healthy life, while electricity only exists for 3-4 hours a day.
“If you are seriously ill in the Gaza Strip, I am sorry, but the odds of survival are not in your favor due to the lack of medical care and the lack of medicines and treatments. "Anyone who needs medical help must submit a request to the Israeli occupation authorities and after a thorough review of the request, which takes several months, if the patient is still alive, they may be allowed to leave Gaza to receive medical care," he added. .
It is no coincidence, said the Ambassador, that Gaza has been described as the largest "open prison" in the world, "because, let's not laugh, the Palestinians living there have absolutely no rights, absolutely no freedom."
"Has anyone wondered what the huge fence is that the Palestinians have so happily thrown down? Did anyone see the emotion on their faces? Has anyone wondered what that "wall" is doing there? For so long the world has been idly watching the oppression and humiliation of the Palestinians and counting the dead. Dead Palestinians," he said.
The Ambassador said that “the Israeli government may have declared war now, but its war against the Palestinians began 75 years ago. Israeli apartheid, occupation and the complicity of the international community is the source of all this violence."
For 75 years, he continued, “young Palestinians and children have been dragged from their beds in pre-dawn raids by Israeli occupation soldiers and held without charge in Israeli concentration camps. Since 1948 we have had 100.000 dead Palestinians, from 1967 until today 1.000.000 Palestinians have been arrested and imprisoned, while at the moment we speak there are 5.000 Palestinians imprisoned, among them women and children."
The Ambassador said that over the past year, Israel has “ruthlessly escalated its military occupation with violent evictions and house demolitions, mass killings, murders of journalists, merciless siege and daily humiliation. Only in 2023 the dead Palestinians reach 1.000. In recent weeks, Israeli forces have been conducting daily raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in the Muslim religion, but also on Christian holy sites."
He spoke of the "hypocrisy" of the international community and the civilized West that has reached "the dead end".
"There must be an end to the policy of two standards and two standards," he said, adding that he could not understand how the United Nations, the organization that signed the establishment of the state of Israel, did not react when the Prime Minister of Israel "at the General Assembly of The UN defiantly used a map of the Middle East without Palestine, without even the occupied Palestinian territories".
What international community are we talking about? asked the Ambassador, saying "we are talking about the absence of the international community or about the illuminated buildings with Israeli flags. Since when have democratic states sided with occupation and apartheid?”
Asked how he sees the situation developing in general, he said that "we have repeatedly warned of the consequences of blocking the political horizon and failing to allow the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate right to self-determination and to create their own state."
He said that "Israel's repudiation of signed agreements and non-compliance with international legality decisions led to the destruction of the peace process. This is in addition to the absence of a solution to the Palestinian cause after 75 years of suffering and displacement, the continuation of double standards and the silence of the international community on the criminal and racist practices of the Israeli occupation forces and the continuation of injustice and our oppression. These are the reasons behind the explosive situation and the absence of peace and security in the region."
The Ambassador said that peace requires justice, freedom and independence for the Palestinian people, the return of refugees and the full implementation of international legality decisions.
"The world must understand that security, stability and peace in the region can be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to the 1967 borders, and recognizing the right of the people in their independence and national sovereignty", he continued.
The Palestinian Ambassador said oppressed people everywhere will seek their freedom.
"We all deserve freedom, security and equality. The only way to get there is to root out the sources of violence, perhaps starting first with the complicit silence of the international community."
He concluded by saying that "we are not looking for compensation in the blood and corpses that each people has lost. We mourn the lives of those already lost and remain committed to a future where every life is precious and all people live in freedom and security."
Source: KYPE
