Palestine Ambassador on Gaza

Brut India

After the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s response of bombing Gaza, the Palestinian Ambassador to India spoke to Brut about the situation in Gaza.

Transcript

00:00We are here with the Palestinian ambassador to India, Adnan Abu Al-Hijja.

00:05I wanted to ask you on aid reaching Gaza, what is the situation like?

00:10Yes, for the moment, I think there is enough. But the problem is that the closure is still there.

00:16We are for the 16th day without electricity, without water, without medicine, without food,

00:25without oxygen, without petrol. So you can imagine 2.2 people living in open prison, right?

00:38And also do all that. That won't affect Hamas. That affects the Palestinian people.

00:45Now there is humanitarian aid in Egypt. Lots of it.

00:50At the normal times, before the siege, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza and it was not enough.

01:01What entered Gaza during the last 16 days up to now is 20 trucks.

01:08And it's medicine, it's not food. Most of it I think it's medicine.

01:15So this is war crime. We have heard Ursula, this leader of the European Union,

01:25when it was from the Russian on Ukraine, she described it as war crime.

01:33But those who are looking to the Palestinian cause in double standard,

01:39she said Israel has the right to defend itself. Right? It is war crimes.

01:46Should be ended as soon as possible. Real pressure from the international community.

01:53I know they are defended by some European countries like Britain and let me say United States.

02:04But the world is not only Britain and the United States. This war crime should be ended

02:13and the siege should be ended also. All this humanitarian aid should enter to Gaza.

02:22Can you give us a sense right now on what is your assessment in Gaza as of today?

02:28It is war crimes. It is genocide. It is ethnic cleansing covered by the United States

02:38and some other European countries. The free hand of Mr. Netanyahu,

02:46who does not need reason to commit massacres. You can watch and you have seen what has happened

03:00with that hospital. At the beginning, yes, they said we targeted members of Hamas.

03:06When they have seen the number of casualties, they changed the story and they said Jihad Islamic rocket, something like that.

03:14What are the options at this point in time for the Palestinians?

03:18First of all, let me say that the Palestinian people make two mistakes in their life.

03:24First mistake, it was 1948 when the Haganah organization make many massacres of the Palestinian people.

03:37So they treat the Palestinian people with the media from Britain at that time.

03:43So 950,000 flee of Palestine to as a refugee to other areas.

03:51The decision of the Palestinian people now is ready to die in the land of Palestine

04:02and be buried in the land of Palestine and that mistake won't happen with the Palestinian again.

04:10This is our decision. Now we are expecting more massacres.

04:15Not in Gaza only because maybe one of the reasons of what has happened on the 7th of October

04:26that the Israeli since has formed this government at the beginning of this year.

04:32Before 7th of November in West Bank they have killed 260 people.

04:39They confiscate the highest number of land in Israel history.

04:46With this government Netanyahu, Ben Ghaffir and Smotrich.

04:51It's a very extreme government. The killing of the armed militia of their settlers

04:58to the Palestinian youth and people affecting their life, burning their homes, uprooting their olive trees,

05:08stealing the fruit of the olive trees from the people after they collect it by weapon.

05:15All that also we can't forget Al-Aqsa what's going at Al-Aqsa Mosque also.

05:22All these crimes of this government and its militias the settlers affect the situation

05:29and it's one reason of what has happened on the 7th of October.

05:34I want to discuss a little bit about the Middle East and the Arab world as well.

05:40Do you think somewhere in the last couple of years the Palestinian cause has come low in priority of the Arab world?

05:48No, it's not like that. Maybe the Israelis has managed with the pressure from the United States

05:54to normalize relation with the three Arab countries.

05:59But if you notice the demonstrations in the Arab countries now from the Gulf countries,

06:07maybe not in the United Arab Emirates as an example, but it is in Bahrain, it is in Qatar,

06:13it is in Kuwait, it is in Jordan, everywhere.

06:19And millions sometimes are demonstrating.

06:23The Israelis are trying to go around the Palestinian cause.

06:30They think if they normalize relation with the Arab countries, they can easily solve the Palestinian cause.

06:42I would like to mention to Mr. Netanyahu and others.

06:47We are on the land and if he normalized the relation with everybody,

06:56we are the owner of the cause and we are the people on the land.

07:01He can make massacre as much as he wants,

07:05but first of all it's impossible to normalize the relation with all

07:13and you can easily notice not only in the Arab countries,

07:19but in the United States how the demonstration are going against Israel,

07:25against their crimes in Britain, in Holland, in France, everywhere now people are demonstrating against Israel.

07:34What do you think of India's response so far?

07:38Always we are looking for India from the beginning.

07:43Let me say India used to support the Palestinian cause since Mahatma Gandhi

07:49and it's well known what he said about Palestine, Britain and France,

07:55that Palestine is to the Arabs as France to the French and Britain to the, or England to the English.

08:06We want from India to do something with the international community,

08:12especially they knew very well the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people crisis with this occupation.

08:20India, I think, is a very important country.

08:24They can cooperate with European countries, with China, Russia, Arab countries,

08:32call for international conference, for peace international conference,

08:38and find a solution because we can't follow this way of war from time to time.

08:48We would like our children to wake up at the voice of the birds,

08:56not at the voice of the Israelis' rockets and bombs.

09:01What can a long term solution be at this point in time?

09:05To me, I hope it's the last war.

09:08To me, I hope we will go to the peace process as soon as possible, get our rights,

09:17because we are not going to live as slaves under this occupation forever.

09:24Those settlers who are coming from Russia, from Ukraine, from United States, from Britain, from Ethiopia,

09:33live as masters and we live in our homeland as slaves.

09:38This will never be accepted from the Palestinian people.

09:42And because of that, we should find peace process.

09:46We should find peaceful solution.

09:50Otherwise, this won't be the last one.

09:54Hope it's the last one.

09:56How do you view Hamas?

09:58Hamas is part of the Palestinian people.

10:02Hamas also, if there is no occupation, there is no armed organization from Hamas or any other organizations.

10:13The international law gives any people under occupation, under colonialism to resist in all means.

10:21So, go for peace.

10:26Hamas is ready to accept State of Palestine on the land of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

10:34And I discussed that with some of their political leaders.

10:39Right. If there is a real political solution, Hamas will be a political party.

10:49Right. Mr. Al-Hajar, thank you so much for talking to Brut.

10:52Thank you very much. You are welcome.

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