MOHAMMED RASOOLDEEN
COLOMBO ; The embassy of Palestine , in cooperation with the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine,commemorated its 77th Naqba Day in Colombo on Thursday May 15
The meeting held under the patronage of Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya was hosted by Palestine ambassador Ihab IM Khalil. The others who addressed the gathering were Deputy Speaker Dr Rizvie Salih, Sajith Premadasa, Leader of the Opposition, Bimal Rathnayaka Minister and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine, Jassim Jaber Al-Sorour Dean of the Diplomatic Corps ,Marc-André Franche UN Resident Coordinator,SLMC Leader Rauf Hakeem, All Ceylon Muslim Congress Leader Rishad Bathiudeen , Gajendra Kumar Ponnamballam,
Ambassador Khalil in his speech said ; “
Today we commemorate the 77th Anniversary of the Nakba under the United Nations Theme:
“International Action Towards Ending the Nakba and Realizing the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People”
Seventy-seven years ago, in 1948, a catastrophe befell the Palestinian people—Al Nakba that marked the destruction of hundreds of towns and villages, the forced displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians, and the establishment of a settler-colonial regime on the ruins of a Palestinian homeland that had existed for centuries.
The Nakba – which means” catastrophe” in Arabic was not a single brutal action but it was the beginning of a prolonged series of real outrageous suffering of all kinds. Which meant, dispossession, exile, and systematic denial of the Palestinian people’s basic rights.
This year’s Nakba commemoration is drenched in blood and ashes. For more than a year and a half, Gaza has endured one of the most catastrophic and destructive military assaults in modern history. Tens of thousands of Palestinians—many of them women and children—have been killed. Over two million people have been forced into starvation, displacement, and suffering, surrounded by rubble, disease, and death.
What we are witnessing today is not merely a war—it is a continuation of the Nakba
The new chapters of the Palestinian Nakba, were written not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank, occupied East- Jerusalem. The Israeli occupation government continued its crimes of deliberate extra-judicial killings
of civilians, persecution, mass arrests, abuse of Political prisoners, illegal confiscation and annexation of Palestinian occupied lands, demolition of Palestinian homes, and forced displacement. More dangerously the ever growing, at alarming rates, the terrorist attacks of armed settlers against Palestinian defenseless civilians and Villages.
The 77th Nakba anniversary is therefore not only a moment of mourning. It is a call to action. It is a cry from the heart of a nation that refuses to disappear. It is a solemn reminder to the world that justice delayed is not justice denied, but justice destroyed. It is a reaffirmation of our right to exist, to resist, and to return.
Our messages to the international community are
to uphold human rights, international law and act Now.
Nakba must not continue into an 8th decade:
- Now is time for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
- Now is the time to lift the illegal blockade on Gaza and the free and unhindered flow of Humanitarian assistance.
- Now is the time for full accountability for the war crimes committed against our people
- Now is the time for the illegal Israeli occupation to End and to implement the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and independence.
I Thank whole heartedly, the brotherly people and leadership of Sri Lanka for standing on the right side of History, and always upholding international law and international humanitarian law; and unwaveringly supporting Palestine’s just cause..pix from ASHRAFF SAMAD
Trust Your Lord but Tie Your Camel !!!
