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QNA
Istanbul
The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani addressed the opening session of the Emergency Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Palestine in Istanbul on Friday with the participation of heads of delegations of Islamic countries.
In his address, the Amir said,"There is an international consensus that transcends political and ideological differences on the need to put an end to the injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people. The way to this is through a historic settlement establishing a Palestinian State in the territories occupied in 1967 ” that is to say 22 percent of the historic land of Palestine ” with Jerusalem as its capital."
"There is an international consensus that the Israeli expansionist policies, in terms of the construction of settlements and the Judaisation of Jerusalem, are illegal and constitute an obstacle in the way of achieving this historic settlement."
The Amir said,"On the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe (Nakba), the Israeli forces have committed a brutal massacre of peaceful Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. The question of Palestine has gone down in history as a cause of people whose homeland was usurped, and who were made refugees and scattered in diaspora around the world, with the majority of them taking refuge in the Arab countries and in some Palestinian cities, including the Gaza Strip."
"Before the elapse of two decades after the Nakba, the Gaza Strip fell under direct Israeli occupation in the aftermath of the 1967 war, as is the case of the West Bank and Jerusalem. After a protracted struggle and heavy sacrifices, as well as two well-known popular uprisings against the occupation, Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip alone, but imposed a stifling siege on it that continues up to this day, which means, it has continued the occupation by other means."
"Recently, the residents of the Strip, who are the sons and grandsons of those refugees have organised courageous peaceful marches to commemorate the right of return for the Palestinian refugees, which was approved by the United Nations in its Resolution No. (194) of 11 December 1948. To remind you I would say: Israel's commitment to implement that resolution and to implement the Partition Plan of 1947 was a prerequisite for its acceptance as a member in the United Nations."
The Amir said during the march on May 15, which is considered by the Palestinians and the Arabs as the Nakba of Palestine, the massacre took place, and the world watched it live on TV screens.
"Israeli soldiers fired a type of explosive bullets to kill demonstrators in broad daylight. The perpetrators of the carnage themselves have not claimed that the Palestinians were armed. For weeks, Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have been staging peaceful marches as a reminder of the right of return, and to reject the liquidation of the Palestinian cause without a just solution."
The Amir added,"Although the right of return is in itself an issue for legitimate demonstrations, it is rather difficult to understand this Palestinian outcry at the border with their country from which they were displaced without the backdrop of the suffocating and inhumane siege enforced on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip since they exercised the right to vote seriously in the 2006 elections."
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