We are having this conversation because the Israelis saw what they saw today. But my people see this every day. Every day Palestinians are targeted, killed, arrested, surrounded, their land confiscated, their holy sites desecrated. […] Our people have been subjected to apartheid in recent years, their land is being taken away and hope for a political solution that guarantees their rights is fading. We have to discuss this.
Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, told CNN
He said the civilian deaths were tragic, but the deafness and blindness of the international community was equally terrible. “Israel knew this would happen. We in the Palestinian national movement agreed to what the world asked of us: we recognize Israel, we commit to nonviolent negotiations, to international legitimacy and resolution,” he said. “Israel had to do only one thing: stop the military occupation and the expansion of its colonial settlements. They didn’t do that for a single day, destroying the prospect of a twostate solution.”
For him, the only way to resolve the conflict would be the fair application of international law. “We must end Israeli military occupation, colonization and the system of racial domination imposed on us,” he said. “We are not less human, we are not children of a lesser God. We are equal as nations.”
Zomlot called on the judges of the International Criminal Court to go to Palestine. “Let the international judges come and judge. We will accept the verdict. If we have committed a mistake or a crime, we will accept it. But everyone knows that it is Israel that violates all principles of international law and human decency.”
The conflict reaches its third day with more than 1,200 dead
The Israeli government and Hamas have been at war since Saturday (7). as the extremist group launched the largest attack on Israeli territory in 50 years.