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International Day for Solidarity with Palestine: SL continues to back Palestinian cause

29 Nov 2021

BY Pamodi Waravita The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) joined other nations in celebrating the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine yesterday (29), by reiterating that Sri Lanka continues to support Palestine in achieving full membership status at the United Nations (UN) and diplomatic efforts to find lasting peace in the region. In a Tweet yesterday, Regional Co-operation State Minister Tharaka Balasuriya said that Sri Lanka continues to support the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people”. “Sri Lanka has consistently supported the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to a sovereign State. The GoSL supported the UN Resolution granting Palestine “non-Member Observer status” in 2012. Sri Lanka continues to support full Member status for Palestine in the UN. Sri Lanka’s long-standing position on the issue is that we support the diplomatic efforts to find a lasting solution and request both parties (Israel and Palestine) to engage in dialogue to achieve lasting peace. We believe that two states living side by side in harmony with one another within secure borders is key to achieving long-term security and prosperity. Thus, we reiterate the importance of an early implementation of the UN Resolution regarding the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders,” Balasuriya said in Parliament last Saturday (27). The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict seeks to establish an independent Palestinian State alongside the Israeli State. “Since 1968, as the Chair of the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, Sri Lanka has been one of the most significant voices in the UN on the subject of the unfortunate conditions of the occupied territories. We support Palestine in many multilateral forums,” noted Balasuriya. Meanwhile, Water Supply Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara stressed the importance of uniting against western imperialism as a measure to achieve freedom in Palestine. “Your neighbour is your biggest enemy – Palestine’s biggest enemy is Israel. The biggest enemy’s (Israel’s) biggest supporter is the US. Palestine’s freedom depends on the weakening of western imperialism. Western nations destroyed Iraq and Libya. We should unite against western imperialism and this is the only way of achieving Palestinian freedom,” claimed Nanayakkara in Parliament said last Saturday. The Israeli-Palestine conflict has led to decades of violence in the Middle Eastern region, over territorial issues. In 2021, conflict escalated again when an Israeli court passed a verdict to forcibly expel Palestinian families living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem. Air attacks by Israel earlier this year killed over 200 Palestinians and injured over 1,500 people while 12 people were killed on the Israeli side of the conflict, due to rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip.


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