Lankan Parliamentarians and the ongoing genocide in Palestine

UNRWA reveals that the number of registered Palestinian refugees in  January 2022 amounted up to around 5.9 million.

On the 15th of May the world commemorates the ‘Nakba’, The day set aside by Palestinians to remind humanity of the inhuman cruelties being unleashed on a helpless people who were driven out of their lands and homes by the creation of Israel in the then undivided state of Palestine on 15 May 1948. 

Between 700,000 to 1,000,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes by Jewish settlers who were settled in Palestinian lands by the UN. Sadly it was the UN which divided Palestine into the states of Israel and Palestine. Since then Israel has continued attacking Palestinians on a regular basis as well as through major wars.

As the situation worsened and the numbers of Palestinian refugees rose by millions, The United Nations -- the body which implanted Israel into Palestine -- was  forced to set up a body known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) to look after the needs of the millions displaced by Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. 

UNRWA reveals that the number of registered Palestinian refugees in January 2022 amounted up to around 5.9 million. Approximately 2.5 million of them live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where they constitute more than 40% of the Palestinians in the world. 

In November 2023   Smotrich, Israel’s far-right minister, said Gaza would “not survive as an independent entity” and Palestinians should leave for other countries.

In September last year Israel launched a murderous attack on Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Statistics of the Palestinian Authority reveal up to May this year the death toll from Israel’s war on the besieged enclave reaches 61,709, over   14,222 people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble or in areas inaccessible to rescuers. 

The figure includes 17,492 children. More than 111,588 people have been injured. Almost all of Gaza’s homes  have been damaged or destroyed. More than  50 percent of hospitals are only partially functional.

Israel’s acts have been described as genocide by people the world. Unfortunately the rulers in the West and the US refuse to even condemn Israeli action during debates at the UN. 

It was in these circumstances that Prime Minister Ms. Harini Amarasuriya, the Leader of the House, the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Speaker of the House and a cross-section of parliamentarians from the Lankan parliament unreservedly condemned the ongoing Israeli massacres in Palestine and called for an immediate halt to the genocide. 

Speaking at the event organised by the Sri Lanka Solidarity Committee with Palestine and the Embassy of Palestine in Lanka on 15 May, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, Chief Guest at the ceremony, remarked the year 1948 is of profound significance to both Sri Lanka and Palestine, though for very different reasons. 

While for Sri Lanka, February 4, 1948, marked the nation’s independence from British colonial rule, transitioning into self-governance. Three months later, on May 15, 1948, Nakba Day began for the Palestinians, symbolising the violent displacement of over 700,000 people and the destruction of their villages, marking the beginning of a long-standing refugee crisis following the establishment of the State of Israel.

She added it was our duty when credible evidence was available. Silence is complicity and decisive action was needed to secure justice for the Palestinian people. She called on the international community to help achieve a lasting solution. The Leader of the Opposition forcefully reiterated this position as did the leader of the House,  the Deputy speaker of parliament, the leader of the SLMC and Gajen Ponambalam, leader of the Tamil Congress.

For too long the world has watched as governments of the West and the US have blindly backed Israel’s murderous actions against an innocent Palestinian population. Today fortunately, younger people in the US and in the West are coming out in numbers, risking arrest and protesting their leaders’ collaboration in the commissioning of genocide in Palestine.

Hopefully as we saw in Vietnam in 1975, these protests will snowball and force  western leaders to stop their blind support to Israel and bring justice to Palestine.