SLCSP congratulates Palestine

The Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine (SLCSP) in a statement said that it takes great joy in congratulating the people of Palestine on their success in winning Observer Status at the United Nations on 29 November 2012 after a long struggle of 65 years. This is the first step in achieving Full Membership in the near future.

The organisation takes great pleasure in thanking all the states that voted in favour of the UN Resolution and hopes they will keep up the pressure on Israel to ensure that the Palestinians have the justice they deserve and clamour for, so that they too can live their lives in dignity like all nations in the world.

Presently, Israel, in a fit of pique, has decided to construct thousands of more settlements in Occupied Palestine in gross violation of international law, especially in East Jerusalem which is supposed to the capital of the state of Palestine in accordance with the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Indeed, with every passing day, Israel builds new settlements just so that a two state solution becomes non-viable. Obviously, Israel’s intention is to ensure that no such solution takes place and so it continues to defy the world community in its customary policy of obduracy.

“The world must take up the Zionist challenge posed by Israel in the same way it stood up against the apartheid policy of White South Africa. We are happy to see that there are many countries in the world including European countries that are summoning Israeli ambassadors to their countries and expressing grave concern over Israeli action in Occupied Palestine.

“But it’s unlikely that Israel will be swayed by such expressions of concern. What is needed now is for the world to pressurize the Israeli government to hand over the monies due to the Palestinians by way of taxes and custom duties which Israel has confiscated to punish the Palestinians. The world must also impose economic and military sanctions against Israel and at the same time Israel must be compelled to follow civilised behavior required by all countries in the comity of nations,” the SLCSP Secretary Nanda Kaluthanthri said in the statement.

“We salute the people of Palestine for resisting Israel’s occupation of their land and confronting Israel’s racist policies for as long as they have. We wish them good fortune in their struggle for freedom and assure them of our support at all times,” the statement added.