By Md. Kamruzzaman
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh has strongly condemned the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp and the killing of 10 Palestinians while at least 50 other Palestine Muslims were injured.
“Bangladesh reiterates its absolute rejection of the repeated Israeli attacks and incursions against Palestinians, resulting in the loss of civilian lives through the excessive and indiscriminate use of force,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of the South Asian Muslim majority nation.
Expressing deep concern over the “egregious violations of basic civil norms, international human rights norms and accords” by the Zionist Israeli forces, the statement added that Bangladesh wants an end to this aggression.
“It (Bangladesh) recommits to the international efforts to achieve an end to these attacks and revive the Middle East Peace Process,” said the statement.
Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with Israel on the ground of the country’s continuous aggression in the Middle East and human rights violations.
According to historical records, on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel in the Muslim territory of the Middle East amid condemnation and concerns from the Muslim World.
The then US President Harry S. Truman recognized the controversial new nation on the same day while the other Western nations supported Israel.
Since its birth as an independent and sovereign country in December 1971, Bangladesh has never supported Israeli aggression against the Palestinian Muslims violating the international laws and diplomatic norms.
“Bangladesh firmly supports the undeniable rights of the people of Palestine for a sovereign and independent homeland. It reaffirms its position in favor of establishing an independent state of Palestine based on the two-state solution,” said the statement.
– Two-state solution
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the two-state solution proposed a framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing two states for two peoples: Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinian people (Muslims).
In 1993 the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed on a plan to implement a two-state solution as part of the Oslo Accords, leading to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Jews, and Arabs both claimed the right to self-determination in historical Palestine. A first attempt at partitioning the land in 1948 resulted in an Israeli state but no Palestinian state, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip fell under Jordanian and Egyptian rule, respectively.
In the Six-Day War of 1967 (historic Arab-Israel War), Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and other Arab territories, which in the aftermath led to the idea that Israel would exchange land it had captured for peace with its Arab neighbors, including, eventually, the Palestinians.
– Continuous violations
Despite all such efforts to establish peace by the international community, the rights violations by the Israeli forces have been reportedly continuing against the Palestinians.
The raids and occupying of new territories of Palestine by the Israeli forces have become almost a regular practice and thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces.
According to different available sources, at least 15,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, have been killed by Israeli attacks since 1948.
Meanwhile, according to the latest update, all Israeli forces have been withdrawn from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, ending a two-day operation that killed at least 12 Palestinians, injured approximately 100 others and caused widespread destruction to Jenin’s refugee camp.
Bangladesh in its statement restates that a lasting solution to the Palestine issue would be possible only through dialogue and diplomacy and calls upon all parties to work towards this end.
Bangladeshi nationals have also organized rallies and human chains in the capital Dhaka many times against Israeli aggression against Palestinians and called on the United Nations for taking due action.
Note: The writer is an Asia-based prize-winning freelance journalist who mainly writes on diplomacy, refugee, human rights, and climate change. https://twitter.com/mkbablu
