Palestinian conflict not based on religion: envoy
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Ambassador Abullah Sawesh (PTI photo).
Kochi: Palestine Ambassador to India, Adullah Abu Sawesh, on Thursday, said that the Palestine-Israel conflict was not religion-based, as it is often portrayed, PTI reported.
He was addressing a solidarity conference organised by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) here.
He said that the history of Palestine did not start on October 7 (2023), and it is very deep and goes back to Prophet Abraham, as referred to in the Quran.
He said that the major turning point came in 1917 when the United Kingdom "gifted our homeland to European Jews. November 2, 1917, sowed the seeds of the misery we face today," he said.
Sawesh recalled that Palestinians launched a revolution in 1936, similar to India's freedom movement.
In 1947, when the United Nations took up the Palestine issue, Mahatma Gandhi opposed the resolution, affirming that Palestine belonged to the Palestinians, he said.
He said Palestinians are being cleansed from our homeland.
"My family was expelled from our village, and we lived in a refugee camp in Gaza. We know the exact meaning of suffering and the source of the problem," he said.
Rejecting attempts to frame the conflict as religious, he said, "This is not because we are Muslims and they are Jews. This is because we are Palestinians and they are occupiers. We have nothing against Jews, Christians or any religion. Unfortunately, the Zionist movement always tries to portray it as religion-based." He pointed out that Jews and Christians have supported the Palestinian cause.
He said there was even a Jewish minister in Yasser Arafat's government.
He also took the names of Jewish and Christian leaders who supported the Palestinian people.
The ambassador rejected allegations of terrorism against Palestinians.
"We have never committed any terrorist act against anyone. No one can accuse us of being terrorists. We will not allow Israel and the Zionist movement to depict us that way," he said.
