NEW DELHI, 23 June 2007 — Describing the crisis affecting Palestinians at present as “worst of worst,” Talmiz Ahmed, director general ICWA (Indian Council of World Affairs) yesterday emphasized the need for the world community to be “sensitive to the aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
With the entire area from Pakistan to Palestine subject to numerous conflicts, he said: “There is a very serious human cost.” Commenting on the “resurgence of imperialism,” Ahmed spoke critically of extremist designs being exercised to crush what Israel and United States’ top leadership “view as Islamic terrorism.”
“How should we approach these issues,” he raised the question while opening the seminar on “Palestine: 1967 and After” organized by ICWA and League of States Mission, marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War which led to Israeli occupation of Arab territories.
Describing the “peace-process” as “nothing but reconfirmation of the occupation process,” Ahmed Salem Saleh Al-Wahishi, ambassador, League of Arab States Mission, said in his address: “The entire region will continue to be conflict-ridden till a genuine attempt is made for peace.”
“Any step (in the peace process) being taken to satisfy Israel should also satisfy Palestinians and Arabs,” he said. The 1967 war was a “wake-up call” to what the region has faced since then, he observed.
Emphasizing the need for Palestinians to “unite,” Al-Wahishi said: “I look forward to Palestinian unity, to the narrowing of the gulf between them.”
“We are victims since 1947,” Palestinian envoy Osama Musa pointed out. Criticizing the United Nations for having failed to play an effective role in settling the Palestinian problem, Musa said: The UN was for peace, but there is no peace, only disaster. There has been one foolish resolution after another from the UN.”
Strongly criticizing the noise made by United States about peace, human rights, justice and similar issues, Musa said: “They have no justice. They believe in justice through tanks and missiles. They talk of human rights but Americans are the biggest violators of human rights.”
Even if Israel and Palestine make serious attempts toward peace, the same would not be supported by the US, Musa said. “Israel and Palestine’s peace is illogical for American interests because then Arabs would not need the US,” Musa said.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was credited for the Makkah agreement, which brought the two Palestinian factions together (Fatah and Hamas), though for not too long, by C.R. Gharekhan, prime minister’s special envoy for West Asia and the Middle East peace process.
In the present circumstances, he said: “India agrees that President Mahmoud Abbas’ hands should be strengthened. But that is not enough.” P. Harish, Indian bureaucrat who has lived in Palestine for several years, gave his personal account of what struck him the most while he was there. Palestinians were without a state, he said. “Statelessness — the defining characteristic of Palestinians, that is the worst crime, worst humiliation of people beyond poverty, that of living in occupied territories,” he said.
Taking note of Israeli actions, “in violation” of “all relevant international resolutions,” a press release issued by League of Arab States Mission said: “We call upon all peace loving forces and civil society representatives to enhance their effort in support of the Arab choice of peace based on the Arab peace initiative adopted at the Beirut summit and the recent Riyadh summit (March 2007)” for “Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territories in West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, Syrian Golan Heights and what is left from remaining Lebanese territories.” Palestinians should have their legitimate right to return to their homeland, establish their independent state and there should be peaceful relations between Israel and Arab states, the release said.
