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by Mahinda Rajapaksa - MP President, Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine and Minister of Ports, Shipping and Fisheries

On this day of solidarity with the peoples of Palestine let me express our whole-hearted solidarity and wish good luck on behalf of the peoples of Sri Lanka who had been sharing the many sufferings of the Palestinians throughout their struggle to get back to their homes.

As a result of my active involvement in Palestine solidarity activities for the last twenty five years I could not help reading and discussing this subject and it appears that it is getting complicated year after year with no solution in sight.

The misery and suffering of the Palestinians hurt me so much that I sometimes look up and ask "Why don't you put an end to this"? I get no answer.

As one associated with Palestine by virtue of my position as President of Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine, I have begun to share the immense sufferings that Palestinian brothers, sisters and children undergo in Palestine, in refugee camps and in many countries abroad with no hope of peace. As a human rights worker my pain is further increased on seeing the inhuman attitude of the Zionists who appear to be determined to wipe out the Palestinians from the face of the earth.

When we come to the question proper I feel that the world community should be held responsible for this never ending conflict. UNO created this problem and is now appealing to others to find a solution. It appears that it has no power to point its finger at the guilty party.

I do not wish to trace the origin of this much discussed problem which the whole world is aware but I must very firmly state that pro Zionist lobby is very much stronger than all the right thinking groups put together. They have re-created the history of Palestine for their benefit. The impression created by them is that Palestine was originally occupied by Jews and that Palestinians are the intruders. It is also openly mentioned that Palestinians have no claim to Jerusalem. If these distortions are not answered discussing a subject like "Inalienable rights of the Palestinians" is completely out of context. So let this be the question of highest priority.

In 1948, to be exact on 29th November United Nations General Assembly decided to implement the crime of the age by the creation of Israel, and allowing immigrants from all over the world to settle in the Palestinian national homeland.

It should not be forgotten here that at the time the world Zionist movement was searching for a country to establish this Zionist entity even Sri Lanka was in the shopping list along with a few African countries. We Sri Lankans would have been the victims and not Palestinians if the world Zionist movement decided on Sri Lanka. They also would have re-written the history of Sri Lanka to prove that Jews were the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka.

For the mere reason we have escaped, we cannot be silent and in this regard I thank the Sri Lankans for expressing their solidarity and support to the Palestinian struggle irrespective of their political, racial and religious differences. Palestine solidarity workers in Sri Lanka who are very much aware of the plight of the Palestinians continued with the Palestine solidarity work even though some thought that with the signing of the Wye River Agreement, the problem would be over. In actual fact it is far from being over and is back to square one with the arrival of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel.

There is no dispute that the inalienable rights of the Palestinians have to be protected.

Even a fair percentage of Jews in Israel feel so. All these groups and the right thinking people all over the world strongly felt that United Nations would correct this grave mistake it committed in 1948. In the past United Nations adopted hundreds of resolutions under pressure from Arab, Socialist and other anti imperialist forces but unfortunately the imperialist forces that pushed UNO to the sin of legitimizing the creation of Israel on the usurped Palestine soil, are still preventing the implementation of these pro Palestine U.N. resolutions. The will of the international community continues to be challenged shamelessly.

U.N. has repeatedly expressed its grave concern that no just solution had been achieved and that this problem therefore continues to aggravate the Middle East conflict, which is the core and continues to endanger peace and security in the region. Can anyone contest this view? The answer is an emphatic No.

The often repeated just solution to the problem in Palestine has to be on the basis of the attainment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including the right to return and the right to self determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and the principles of international law.

Since the question of Jerusalem is a bone of contention let us see what U.N. has to say about Jerusalem. It demands that Israel should fully comply with all U.N. resolutions relevant to the historic character of the Holy city of Jerusalem. It also has to be specifically mentioned that Security Council resolution 476 of 30th June 1980 rejects the declaration of Israel that Jerusalem is its capital.

Even though U.N. committed the original crime by dividing a country, it also had taken great pains to protect the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, may be due to the change in the balance of power as a result of non aligned nations becoming more united and active. When on the question of inalienable rights of the Palestinian I would like to stress on one special area, i.e., the right to return. The U.N. resolution 194 (iii) recognized the natural and inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homeland. Then the Security Council by its resolution 237 of 1967 unanimously recognized this right.

However the implementation of these resolutions never took place.

In order to make matters easy United Nations proposed that the "return to their homes" be implemented in two phases without prejudice to the right of all Palestinians to return to their homes.

In the proposed phase one Palestinian who was displaced in the war of June 1967 will return as per resolution 237 of 1967 unconditionally. The Security Council was requested to implement this phase. In the second phase those displaced between 1948 and 1967 will be allowed to return to their homes. Just as the inalienable right to return mentioned above there are many other rights too not implemented by UN or any other responsible or concerned group. As a result the conflict continued and there appears to be no solution up to now.

It is generally agreed that resolution of a conflict of this magnitude is a matter for UNO. But considering the hundreds of resolutions approved by UN it appears that UN has failed miserably. Zionist lobby that controls almost every decision making body in the capitalist world will never allow the Palestinians to have a State of their own through U.N. resolutions or agreements. The only language the Zionists understand will be international pressure through peoples movements, that could create problems for their business operations.

One clear case where the effectiveness of international solidarity was proved was the Vietnamese war. In this war solidarity groups played a vital role in exposing the cruel nature of the war and the sufferings of the Vietnamese. U.S. propaganda could not hide the atrocities of its army and the use of chemical weapons. Finally U.S. had to give up the war. In this regard the progressive forces in Sri Lanka too contributed immensely. Now Vietnam is rising from the ashes. In the same way I feel that solidarity movements can make the change in Palestine as well. However, one cannot be happy about the support given by the Arab countries to the struggle of the Palestinians.

Even though this is a discouraging factor solidarity movements based on humanitarian principles cannot ignore the plight of the Palestinians. We firmly believe that solidarity campaigns can always bring about the desired change in Palestine. Slow but steady progress made so far has proved that the international solidarity with Palestinian people had been effective and fruitful. But we cannot be complacent since the Palestinian people are still facing, beside the continuous aggression, a conspiracy to destroy the best democracy in Middle East created by PLO. The coming Palestinian state will be the symbol of that democracy.

We are confident that the determination of the Palestinian people and their traditional readiness to sacrifice for their homeland, supported by international solidarity will defeat the half a century old continued criminal aggression and ensure the Palestinians the final victory.

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