Newspaper
El Liberal
Santiago
del Estero – Wednesday, April 23 of 1997.
A Palestinian diplomat in Santiago
Strong critics from the Palestine Ambassador to Benjamin Netanyahu (view)
He described Argentina as a “generous country, which loves the Arab cause in general and the Palestinian cause in particular”. Today, he will unveil a plaque at San Martin Square and he will plant an olive tree.
The peace process in Middle East is in a deep crisis, after the Israeli decision of building a new settlement in the Arab sector of East Jerusalem. This is an issue which not only worries the Palestinian ambassador in Argentina Dr. Suhail Hani Daher Akel, but also all inhabitants from the country he represents.
The diplomat who arrived yesterday at Santiago confirmed this issue. He will give a conference about the present social-political and cultural situation of Palestine. Today, at San Martin Square, he will plant the eighth olive tree as a symbol of getting the definite peace in the region in conflict.
Daher Akel has carried out an intense tour around Northern Argentina –a region which is densely populated by Syrian-Lebenon descendants- in order to deliver his government’s peace message before the difficult moments it faces today and in order to “seed friends in favour of peace”.
“This is our strong decision along with our fellow-citizens, friends and all those who trust peace will go back to the Holy Land. The land of prophets, great wise men and the Palestinian Jesus”, he remarked in a press conference held at UCSE together with the University Director, Engineer Luis Feijo, after having met with him.
Akel, who had been received at his arrival by the local president of the Syrian Lebanese Society, Dr. Abraham Brahim, expressed that peace will be reached as soon as Israelis definitely withdraw from Palestine, East Jerusalem –“our capital city”-, Southern Lebanon and Syrian Golan.
He assured that Israeli land occupations in the Arab territories are “illegal” and Israel has no right to go on building new settlements on the Palestinian capital city.
After emphasising that this is an attitude of provocation, he stated that this was emphatically repudiated not only by Palestinians but also by the international community. He also maintained that it creates “frustrations and conflict both between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as, in the rest Arab countries in the region”.
He stated that the present administration of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, strengthens “violence in the region and it is high time to eradicate violence and reach the necessary and yearned peace we have been fighting for. Netanyahu has no right to play with the life of his fellow-citizens or Palestinians. He has no right to create violence fronts in the region”.
Akel emphasised that Netanyahu must understand that “the peace of the braves is the one which will succeed. This is the way his ancestors Ihzar Rabin and Shimon Perez interpreted it”.
In
the margin
Holocaust
Daher
Akel showed himself in favour of an “entire justice” in all region
in the Holy Land, considering that all people have “rights; here there
are no privileges and there are no holocausts which are more privileged than
others”. He said that they hate the Nazi holocaust against the Jewish
community, as well as, the one suffered by Armenians and Japanese people.
Though he emphasised: “Only a few times, I have felt that they have
risen against the holocaust Israel carries out against Palestinians.