Palestine
Palestinians vandalise West Bank shrine as tensions soar
Palestinians set fire to a West Bank shrine revered by Jews as Israeli forces operated in the occupied territory following a spate of recent Palestinian attacks in Israel, the Israeli military said Sunday.
The developments come as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have escalated during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year converges with major Jewish and Christian holidays. Protests and tensions around the holiday last year boiled over into the 11-day Gaza war.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav told Israeli Army Radio that some 100 Palestinians marched toward the site late Saturday, rioted and set it ablaze before they were dispersed by Palestinian security forces. Images on social media showed parts of the tomb inside the shrine smashed and charred.
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Joseph's Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus is a flashpoint prayer site. Some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried in the tomb, while Muslims say a sheikh is buried there. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces.
The incident drew condemnation from Israeli leaders. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he was shocked by the images and said Israel would locate the perpetrators and repair the damage.
“The vandalism of Joseph’s Tomb is a grave event and a serious violation of freedom of worship in one of the holiest places for every Jew,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted.
Also on Sunday, the military said forces near a West Bank village opened fire at the lower body of a suspect who did not stop as asked as she was approaching the soldiers. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the suspect, a woman in her 40s, died from her injuries in a hospital.
The incidents come as Israeli forces continued to operate in Jenin and the surrounding area, home to two of the attackers who staged deadly attacks against Israelis in recent weeks.
A raid on the hometown of one of the assailants on Saturday sparked a gunbattle in the occupied West Bank that left at least one Palestinian militant dead.
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Military spokesman Kochav said forces in the West Bank were making arrests, gathering intelligence and preparing the homes of the attackers for demolition.
“We will be at every place at any time as needed to cut off these terror attacks. Israel is going on the offensive,” Bennett told a meeting of his Cabinet.
A military statement said a “violent riot” broke out as forces were operating in the village of Yabad, home to one of the attackers. It said forces responded to the riot with live fire and “neutralized” one Palestinian who threw an explosive at them. It was unclear what his condition was.
Forces arrested at least eight suspects and found Israeli military ammunition and uniforms in one of the suspect's homes as well as illegal arms, the military said.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian militants. Israeli forces often come under fire when operating in the area. Even the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have little control.
While Israel has eased some restrictions on Palestinians during Ramadan, on Saturday Israel tightened them on Jenin, imposing a partial lockdown on all residents aside from laborers working in Israel.
Four attacks by Palestinians in recent weeks have killed more than a dozen people in one of the deadliest bursts of violence against Israelis in years.
Palestinian PM calls on int'l community to stop Israeli attacks against Palestinians
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Monday called on the international community to stop Israel from attacking Palestinians.
An official statement said that Ishtaye made the remarks during the weekly meeting of the Palestinian Authority cabinet held in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"The Israeli escalation against the Palestinians, which included killing, torturing, arresting, and allowing settlers to commit crimes, poses great risks to security and stability in the region," Ishtaye said.
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He called on the international community "to stop the attacks and end the Israeli extremists' violation of Al-Aqsa Mosque's sanctity, especially in light of their preparations to storm the mosque during the Muslim month of Ramadan."
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a site holy to both Muslims and Jews, the latter of whom call it the Temple Mount.
"Israel allows settlers to carry weapons and kill Palestinians just because they are suspects," he told the cabinet, holding Israel "fully responsible for the serious consequences resulting from this escalation,"
On Saturday, three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were killed by Israeli soldiers near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
According to Israeli media outlets, the Israeli security apparatuses said that the three Palestinians were armed and were planning to launch hostile armed attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been flaring over the past few days.
Also Read: Palestinian gunman kills 5 in 3rd attack in Israel in a week
Palestinian gunman kills 5 in 3rd attack in Israel in a week
A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire in a city in central Israel late Tuesday, methodically gunning down victims as he killed at least five people in the third such street attack in a week. The shooter was killed by police.
Israeli media said the attacker was a Palestinian from the West Bank, the third Arab assailant to launch an attack ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The previous two attacks, carried out by Arab citizens of Israel inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, have raised concerns of further violence.
Israel “stands before a wave of murderous Arab terrorism,” declared Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He pledged to combat it “with perseverance, stubbornness and an iron fist.” He held an emergency meeting of top security officials and planned a meeting of his Security Cabinet on Wednesday.
Israeli authorities have not yet determined whether the attacks were organized or whether the attackers acted individually. The Israeli military announced it would be deploying additional troops to the West Bank, and the police chief raised the national readiness level to its highest.
Amateur video footage aired on Israeli television appeared to show the gunman in a black shirt armed with an assault rifle stopping a moving vehicle and shooting the driver. Another showed him chasing a cyclist, with the gun appearing to jam as he tried to fire.
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Tuesday’s shootings occurred at two locations in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city just east of Tel Aviv. Police said a preliminary investigation found the gunman was armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on passersby before he was shot by officers at the scene.
The Magen David Adom paramedic service confirmed that five people were killed. Police said one of the victims was a police officer who arrived at the scene and engaged the shooter.
Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz wrote on Twitter that the security forces “will work with all means to return security to Israeli streets and the feeling of security to civilians.”
Israeli media reported that the suspected gunman was a 27-year-old Palestinian man from the northern West Bank town of Yabad. Police did not immediately provide information about the suspect.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, saying the killing of Israeli or Palestinian civilians “only leads to further deterioration of the situation and instability, which we all strive to achieve, especially as we are approaching the holy month of Ramadan and Christian and Jewish holidays.”
He said the violence “confirms that permanent, comprehensive and just peace is the shortest way to provide security and stability for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”
No Palestinian groups immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamist militant group Hamas praised the “heroic operation,” but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Israel in recent weeks has been taking steps aimed at calming tensions and avoiding a repeat of last year, when clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators in Jerusalem boiled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.
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But the new wave of violence is greatly complicating those efforts.
On Sunday, a pair of gunmen killed two young police officers during a shooting in the central city of Hadera, and last week, a lone assailant killed four people in a car ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli security services raided the homes of at least 12 Arab citizens and arrested two suspected of having ties to the Islamic State group in a crackdown sparked by recent deadly attacks.
Hours before the raid, Bennett said the recent assaults inside Israel marked a “new situation” that required stepped-up security measures.
Law enforcement officials said 31 homes and sites were searched overnight in northern Israel, an area that was home to the gunmen who carried out the Hadera attack.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the two previous attacks.
All of the attacks have come just ahead of Ramadan, which begins later this week and as Israel Israel hosted a high-profile meeting this week between the foreign ministers of four Arab nations and the United States.
All four Arab nations — Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — along with the United States, condemned the killings.
Ramadan is expected to begin Saturday.
Deadly attacks by IS inside Israel, and attacks by Arab citizens of Israel, are rare.
The group operates mainly in Iraq and Syria, where it has recently stepped up attacks against security forces. It no longer controls any territory but operates through sleeper cells. IS has claimed attacks against Israeli troops in the past and has branches in Afghanistan and other countries.
Palestinian kills 1, injures 4 before police shoot him dead
A Palestinian assailant killed one Israeli and injured four others before being fatally shot by Israeli police near the entrance to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site Sunday, police said.
Police said the attack took place near an entrance to a contested flashpoint shrine known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Violence surrounding the site, which is considered holy by both faiths, has triggered previous rounds of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, most recently in May.
Paramedics said one person suffered critical injuries, one suffered serious wounds, and three others were lightly injured. Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital later said the critically injured person died. The paramedics said the Palestinian attacker was confirmed dead at the scene.
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Police said two of those lightly injured were officers and identified the attacker as an east Jerusalem resident in his 40s. Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev told reporters the gunman was a member of Hamas's political arm from the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, and that the man's wife left the country three days earlier.
The Hamas militant group praised the attack in a statement but stopped short of claiming responsibility, calling the incident a “heroic operation.”
“Our people’s resistance will continue to be legitimate by all means and tools against the Zionist occupier until our desired goals are achieved and the occupation is expelled from our holy sites and all of our lands,” spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said.
Dimiter Tzantchev, the EU ambassador-designate to Israel, said in a statement on Twitter that his thoughts were “with the victims of the cowardly attack in the Old City of Jerusalem" and condemned “this senseless attack against civilians. Violence is never the answer.”
Sunday’s incident was the second of its kind in Jerusalem’s historic Old City in recent days, but shootings are relatively rare. On Wednesday, a Palestinian teen was fatally shot after stabbing two Israeli border police.
In that incident, the two officers were hospitalized and the teen, identified by police as a 16-year-old from east Jerusalem, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security personnel in recent years. Palestinians and rights groups contend some of the alleged car-rammings were accidents and accuse Israel of using excessive force.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move unrecognized by most of the international community.
The Palestinians seek the occupied West Bank and Gaza for a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Three Nations Cup: Bangladesh lose 0-2 to Palestine
Bangladesh national football team conceded a 0-2 defeat against Palestine in their first match of the Three Nations Cup 2021 in Kyrgyzstan Sunday night.
Palestine put Bangladesh down by one goal in the first half at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
Layth Kharoub put Palestine ahead in the 33rd minute (1-0); MA Yaser added one more in the 47th minute (2-0).
At UN, India reiterates 2-state solution on Palestinian issue
Chairing a meeting at UNSC on the "Middle East Peace Process", including on the Palestinian question, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla called on all parties to the conflict to respect the ceasefire and refrain from acts that could exacerbate tensions and worsen the security situation reported Times of India.
Shringla chaired four meetings of the Security Council on Monday, a day before the end of India's presidency of the Council. Officials said India successfully steered discussions during its presidency on Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, and the Middle East Peace Process.
In the discussions on the Palestine issue, Shringla reiterated India’s "long standing and firm commitment" to the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, within secure, recognized and mutually agreed borders, living side by side with Israel in peace and security.
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"We're concerned by recent escalation in Gaza Strip, which once again underscores the fragility of ceasefire and urgent need for addressing the underlying causes that have triggered the escalation," said Shringla.
"I reaffirm India’s call for regular & predictable transfer of aid & other essential items to Gaza to ease humanitarian situation & facilitate early reconstruction, as well as for appropriate use of such aid," he added.
The foreign secretary also noted that early commencement of direct peace negotiations was the best opportunity to resolve all final status issues and achieve a ‘two-state’ solution. He said the decision by Israel to increase number of work permits to Palestinians will help strengthen both economies.
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Shringla also chaired a meeting on Mali sanctions resolution that strongly condemned the activities in Mali and the Sahel region of ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida-linked terrorist organizations such as Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), IS in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
Dhaka wants NAM to find lasting solution to Palestinian crisis
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) should make a concrete initiative to achieve a lasting solution to the Palestinian crisis.
The Foreign Minister was addressing an extraordinary meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine held on Tuesday.
Recalling the unflinching support expressed by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the just struggle of the Palestinian people, Dr Momen reiterated Bangladesh’s solidarity and continued commitment in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, independence, statehood and sovereignty.
He expressed deep concern over the recent violation of ceasefire and indiscriminate attacks carried out by the Israeli forces on innocent Palestinians. “Failure of the international community to resolve the Palestinian crisis has led to a protracted situation in the Middle East.”
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Dr Momen called for immediate action to hold Israel accountable for its flagrant violations of international laws, norms and principles.
“NAM’s support to the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court is of utmost importance,” he added.
The Foreign Minister called upon NAM to redouble its efforts for a just, durable and peaceful solution of this long-lingering crisis.
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He also urged it to ensure adequate assistance for meeting the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinians, including their need for Covid-19 vaccines.
Dr Momen participated in the ministerial meeting of the NAM Committee on Palestine convened on Tuesday.
The Foreign Minister of Palestine, Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malaysia were, among others, attended the event.
The War on Gaza
You and I are human beings, with family, perhaps children and grandchildren, certainly with friends and neighbors. We are of different nationalities, ethnicities, beliefs. We have all seen extreme poverty, and witnessed wars and the killing and the dying, whether firsthand or through the news.
We have similar sentiments. Empathy is a part of us, in our DNA. Unless one can completely block out this aspect of all human beings, it is impossible to view what has happened in the last weeks the people of Gaza without being heartbroken, angry, and feeling helpless.
The country inflicting such disproportionate war on the inhabitants of Gaza is the one that was carved out of ancient Palestine following one of the worst, and one of the most heartbreaking man-made human calamities, the Jewish Holocaust.
As the smoke clears, and as both parties finish their “victory celebrations,” it is on all of us to ask ourselves what we can do.
A mostly barren region of the world, the Israeli and Palestinian land is the holy birthplace of the prophets of the three primary monotheist religions of the world. One would think that with the wisdom of these powerful religions, it would be a heaven of harmony. Instead, we find a hell on Earth, a ground soaked in the blood and tears of far too many innocent victims.
No conflict has consumed so much thought, wisdom and mediation by so many sages. It has produced more “peace plans” and “road maps” than any other conflict of the last century, the writers and planners at times rewarded prematurely with the Nobel Peace Prize, creating false optimism followed by disillusion, more frustration and anger. The hopes of Palestinians have been betrayed by their own leaders, by the rulers of their fellow Arab nations, and by the US.
We have just witnessed a new round of horrors, unleashed by an Israeli state that is apparently without moral constraints, one that believes it somehow has God’s exclusive mandate to be the unchallenged regional power, and one that believes itself entitled to nuclear arsenal that is denied to others in the region. Hamas rockets are easily overwhelmed by the unmatched air force and infantry army of Israel, the world’s 4th world military power.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
AS of 2020, the United States had provided Israel $146 billion (current, or noninflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. In 2021, the Trump Administration requested and additional $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing for Israel and $500 million in missile defense aid. Israel receives the second largest foreign aid allocation in the US budget, second only to Afghanistan, including ultra-modern lethal weapons, advanced missile shield technology and the most advanced jet fighters.
Rhetoric and fist-waving aside, Israel has no discernible external threats to its survival. Iran is as close as it comes to a plausible enemy – but with no nuclear weapons against Israel’s 200 nuclear warheads it is difficult to call this credible. The rockets fired by Hamas, most of them destroyed by Israel’s “Iron Dome,” are comparable to a child throwing rocks at an army of tanks in proportion to Israeli might. Yet the Israeli army has continued to wage wars against the Palestinian people, as it has done since the Arab-Israel war of half a century ago.
The recent conflict, ignited by the invasion by Israeli security forces of the most sacred of Muslim sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, resulting in hundreds wounded, is only the latest move in a long campaign. It is made even more absurd today by the fact that 44% of the population of Gaza is under 14 years old, a demographic often seen in populations that have been subjected to campaigns of annihilation.
The US is an irreplaceable partner in the region and is critical to is resolution. The Biden Administration is inheriting a legacy of extraordinary blunders by the Trump administration that were received by Netanyahu as a green light and license for a scorched earth war against the Palestinians. It will demand courage and wisdom, and strong international support, to undo.
A path to the resolution must begin with all parties being held to the recognized international standards for crimes against humanity. No alliance with the powerful should shield any state or party from accountability for the violation of these standards. International Standards of crimes against one’s fellow human beings, when applied to Slobodan Milošević or Omar Al-Bashir but not to Benjamin Netanyahu become pointless.
Every conflict in this ongoing theater of insanity, including the “eviction” by armed forces from one’s home, to missiles landing in one’s bedroom in Gaza to a 10-year-old Israeli girl cowering in fear in a shelter, should reaffirm the validity and urgent need for the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. The only other option is a unified state composed of Israelis and Palestinians, with the recognition that Palestinians would be the majority. There are no other options.
The next steps on this vital road must now include unimpeded access to Gaza for international humanitarian agencies, and international support for the reconstruction and compensation for the destruction of infrastructures and human lives needlessly lost and wounded. Our common empathy and humanity demand it.
(This article was published in Wall Street International on June 4, 2021 from New York, USA)
Gaza’s bereaved civilians fear justice will never come
The al-Kawlaks, a family of four generations living next door to each other in downtown Gaza City, were utterly unprepared for the inferno.
Like others, they were terrified by the heavy bombing in Israel’s fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers that began May 10. The explosions felt more powerful than in previous fighting. At night, parents and children slept in one room so they would live or die together.
Yet the relatively well-to-do Rimal neighborhood where the family lived in a cluster of apartment buildings seemed somewhat safer than areas along Gaza’s border with Israel, which had been devastated in this and past fighting.
Then one night disaster struck. Azzam al-Kawlak’s four children had gone to bed, and he and his wife were preparing to join them.
At around 1 a.m. on May 16, a thunderous boom shook his top-floor apartment, followed quickly by a second and third. “The floor cracked below our feet and the furniture was thrown to the wall,” the 42-year-old engineer said.
The four-story building collapsed, with Azzam’s apartment dropping to the ground. The family escaped through the kitchen balcony, now almost ground level. Bizarrely, the laundry hanging on a clothesline seemed untouched.
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It took a day for the full horror to emerge, as bodies and survivors were pulled from the rubble. The family and neighbors used ropes to clear chunks of concrete, working alongside ill-equipped rescue teams.
By nightfall, the family’s death toll stood at 22. Eight bodies were dug out of Azzam’s building and 14 from the one next door. The dead included 89-year-old family patriarch Amin, his son Fawaz, 62, his grandson Sameh, 28, and his great-grandson, 6-month-old Qusai.
Just a day earlier, Qusai’s parents had celebrated a small milestone, his first tooth. Azzam’s two younger brothers were killed. Three nieces — 5-year-old Rula, 10-year-old Yara and 12-year-old Hala — were found in a tight embrace, their bodies the last to be pulled out, said Azzam’s surviving older brother, Awni.
The bombing along several hundred meters (yards) of al-Wahda Street took just minutes. In all, it brought down three houses — two in the al-Kawlak compound and one nearby — and killed a total of 43 people, making it the single deadliest air raid of the 11-day war.
Israel said the target was a Hamas tunnel underneath the street, part of what it called a roughly 350-kilometer-long (220-mile) underground network. The tunnels served offensive and defensive purposes, military officials said, accusing Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said during a war-time briefing that the military target in Rimal collapsed, causing nearby houses and their supporting structures to collapse as well. “That caused a large amount of civilian casualties, which were not the aim,” he said.
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He said the army was reviewing the incident and “adjusting the analysis and the ordnance used in the future” to prevent similar events from occurring again. “It’s not a totally mathematic exercise in choosing the ordnance,” he said.
He said Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in areas just as densely populated, with far fewer casualties.
Form independent int’l commission to take legal action against Israel: FS
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Wednesday said an independent international commission must be formed to take legal action against the Israeli authorities for crime and atrocities on the Palestinian people.
He said a ceasefire is not enough for tackling the future violence in Palestine; rather, the immediate establishment of the State of Palestine based on a two-state solution should be the core of all collective efforts.
While sharing his views on Bangladesh’s unwavering support and solidarity with the Palestinians, the Foreign Secretary mentioned that Bangladesh’s position is clear and unambiguous since Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman stood up on international platforms to show Bangladesh’s unflinching support for Palestinian rights.
He made the remarks at a webinar titled ‘Israel’s atrocity against the Palestinians: Where is the Humanity’ organised by the Center for Peace Studies of SIPG at NSU.
Professor Abdur Rob Khan, Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), NSU, touched upon the historical perspective of the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians and the peace process and asked the audience how long the international bodies will let this history continue.
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While critically assessing the role of media on the current escalation of the Israel-Palestine issue, Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan talked about the one-sided media narrative, primarily by the US and UK over the years.
However, this view has changed over the years where just western media no longer dominate the media; rather, social media has democratised and opened space for a bigger narrative with the age of visual media, he said.
Sobhan also stated that the crisis has to be seen from the humanitarian perspectives rather than as a conflict between the Muslim and Jewish communities.
Ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh Yousef SY Ramadan started by asking where is humanity.
He said human rights have been neglected in the cases of Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians. “Due to the lack of a possible justice, the sufferings of the Palestinians have increased over the period. In addition, the entire process of peace talks in the last three decades did not produce anything for the Palestinians.”
He said the more the dialogue, diplomacy and negotiation continued in the previous several decades, the more the Palestinians lost their land and lives. “Now resistance is the only viable option for the Palestinian people.”
Also read: No change in Bangladesh's position over Israel: FM
Former Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said the United Nations and the international community should take a strong stand in resolving the crisis. He elaborated the role of UN, OIC and ICC in trying to bring viable solutions.
Though Israel has a history of detesting any multilateral intervention, new investigations such as that of ICC should give the international community to build its motions, he said.
Professor Atiqul Islam, the Vice-Chancellor of NSU, said the Palestinian issue is an emotional issue, not just as Muslims but as a person with any sense of justice, equity, freedom for people and human rights.
He believes justice will prevail, even if not in the near future, but the Palestinians will get their land, freedom, and livelihoods back in the foreseeable future.
The webinar began with the welcome speech of Dr Bulbul Siddiqi, an Associate Professor and a member of CPS.
Professor Tawfique M Haque, Director of SIPG and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Sociology, was the moderator of the webinar.