The National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution expressing deep concern over the increasing violence and brutality perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the Israeli apartheid regime.
The house strongly denounced the attacks by the Israeli forces on worshippers in al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramzan and attempts to stop the Azaan.
“[The house] denounces and rejects the continuing practice of expanding settlements through forced evictions by the apartheid regime, which are in violation of Article 49 of the Four Geneva Convention,” the resolution said.
The house urged the international community to take immediate cognizance of and action against the ethnic cleansing, genocide, and forced displacement of the Palestinian people; and to establish an international protection mechanism for the Palestinian people.
Winding up discussion on Israeli atrocities, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi gave a call for countrywide peaceful protests against the ongoing Israeli aggression in Palestine on May 21.
Foreign Minister Qureshi told the house that Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed to the proposal and he was making the announcement with his (PM) permission.
He said Pakistan and Turkey had decided to move the United Nations against the Zionist atrocities on the Palestinian people.
He said that he would leave for Turkey after the session where he would also meet Palestinian and Sudanese foreign ministers.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said the PTI-led government would never step back from the country’s stance on Palestine and Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution adopted by the house demanded that the international community ensure accountability for all past and present grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the Palestinians through fair, impartial, and independent accountability and trials.
The house also urged the OIC to take immediate decisive steps for the protection and safety of the Palestinian people and to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza to provide humanitarian assistance.
Foreign Minister Qureshi said the first and foremost priority is an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.
He said two meetings on the Palestinian issue were held on May 16. One was a meeting of the OIC Executive Committee on Foreign Affairs and the other of the UN Security Council. The Security Council meeting was presided over by the Chinese foreign minister.
China tried to unite the Security Council and all members were convinced, but unfortunately the United States vetoed it, he lamented.
He, however, said it could not be done at the United Nations General Assembly.
SHEHBAZ SHARIF: Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif spoke in detail about the ongoing situation in Palestine.
The PML-N president said innocent people were attacked in al-Aqsa Mosque after which Israel’s air force bombed Gaza and destroyed numerous homes.
He said that around seven million Palestinians have been left homeless because of Israeli aggression, adding that had a Muslim country restored to such atrocities, a war would have been waged against it.
The PML-N president said that Islamic countries should represent people’s emotions regarding the Palestine issue, adding that Muslim nations should unite and voice their concerns without wasting time.
He also suggested that Pakistan should observe “Youm-e-Quds” on Friday to show solidarity with the people of Palestine and said that Pakistan should send relief to Palestine through the Red Cross.
Shehbaz demanded that the “ruthless murder of Palestinian people should stop immediately. Otherwise, history will not forgive us if we do not raise our voices for the people of Palestine and Occupied Kashmir.”
He was all praise for the international human rights watch for terming Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians as “apartheid” — a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South-West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s.
