Yousef SY Ramadan, the ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh, urged all nations to take decisive action today to stop Israel’s continued crimes against the Palestinian people, including genocide, displacement, and injustice.
“The terrific conditions experienced by our people along with the comprehensive destruction of their capabilities by Israel, required all of us to act. All countries must take effective measures to protest ongoing crimes of genocide and displacement against our people,” he said.
Yousef SY Ramadan was addressing a symposium today on Palestine Solidarity day, organised by United Nations Association of Bangladesh (UNAB) marking the UN declared day of solidarity with Palestine, at hotel lake castle in the capital.
Chaired by UNAB Vice President Professor Monsur Musa, it was also addressed by Ambassador Masud Mannan and UNAB Secretary General Syed Mohammad Shahed and climate activist Fatiha Aayat.
The envoy criticised the banning of UNRWA’s operation inside Gaza by Israel saying, UNRWA is an UN agency responsible for providing 70 percent of the basic needs of the Palestinian such as food, healthcare, education and more.
He said the scale of the sufferings is unmeasurable as over 45,000 Palestinians have been martyred including 17,500 children and 12,000 women in the Gaza state in the last 45 months.
Yousef said, “The situation in Gaza is a tragedy. But this is not an isolated one. The same policies of land gap settlement explanation and ethnic cleansing are being carried out in the west bank and Jerusalem”.
“The justice we seek continues to be out of reach as the extremist Israeli government commits war crimes against our helpless people,” he said, adding that over 50,000 people are being unlawfully detained in Israeli prisons where they are subjected to sexual assault, torture, starvation, and denial of essential medical care.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions should be enforced, according to the ambassador of Palestine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) must ensure that those who commit crimes are held accountable.
“Although, the majority of the world along with international law is on our side, this has not yet leave justice for Palestinians”, he said, adding, After passing decades, the UN resolution has not been implemented and this failure has deepen the sufferings of the Palestinian people, prolonging the conflict and increasing the horrific level of hardship the people face.
Yousef blamed inaction of UN for the torture on Palestinians saying, “The barbaric aggression against our people is the result of international failure to hold the occupying power Israel accountable for the crime it has been committing for the last 77 years”.
“What we are witnessing today in Gaza and the west banks are the result of this inaction”, he added.
He said, “United Nation in 1947 adopted a resolution 181 (II) which called for partition of Palestine…It is obviously an unjust resolution. And on the day in 1977, UN general assembly declared this day as ‘day of solidarity with Palestinian people recognising the fulfilment of our rights”.
“30 years before that they took a big part of our land and after that, they came up with a resolution calling for international solidarity with the Palestinian people…Anyway, Thank You UN,” he added.
Yousef continued, “Through this resolution, the UN affirmed the historical responsibility to Palestine and showed that the world with its absolute majority stands in support of the Palestinian people and our just causes”.
For year, the people in Palestine has been facing a war of extermination, barbaric aggression which is unfit for a human being to tolerate as mass killing, brutal violence, forced displacement, dramatic destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, universities, book stores and shops are common scenario, said Yousef.
“Israel has even politicised the entry of humanitarian faith in Gaza and used forced starvation and way to further deepen the famine and weaken our people”, he added.
“This is the time we should tell the world that Israel has no rights to carry out the war”, he said, adding, “With the support of all, we will reach the target”.
The Ambassador thanked Bangladesh for standing beside Israel saying, “ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Bangladesh is among the seven countries who prepare the case against Israel”.
