By Ambassador Marwan Emile Toubassi.
*Member of The Progressive Forum for Greek Palestinian Solidarity.
I was struck with pain and extreme sadness as well as anger over the security authorities’ arrest of one of the Palestinian boys when he raised the two flags of Greece and Palestine in Syndagma Square in Athens. Two intertwined flags that the boy raised on an electricity pole to reflect the solidarity between our two friendly peoples and the values that unite them, principles of freedom, justice, equality, dignity , and the right to peoples’ self-determination.
This Palestinian boy, who represents the grandchildren of Yasser Arafat, was with the grandchildren of the Greek people’s freedom fighters Bouboulina, Aris Valoukiotis, Manolis Glezos, and Andreas Papandreou, chanting with tens of thousends Greeks for the freedom of peoples and against the genocidal crimes practiced by the Israeli occupation state, which has so far killed 14,000 Palestinian civilians since last October 7 in one of the most heinous crimes of modern times.
Greece with its proud history for its independence and refusing any oppression and occupation which was expressed in the OXI day that we celebrated weeks ago , should ever accept the oppression and injustice of the Palestinian people that went on since 75 years by colonial and apartheid Israel.
For that sacrifices of the Greek people and for its principles of democracy , human rights and equality. In addition to the important geopolitical status in the region , Greece never have to be part of the biased intentions and motions of the American decision-maker and its Western allies towards the false Israeli narrative, and its complete adoption , without considering the degree of validity of these allegations, in addition to adopting the term “Israel’s right to defend itself” and ignoring the roots of the conflict, with a regular airlift of military supplies by $14 billion in the form of urgent aid in parallel with deliberately drowning out justice in international forums, and procrastinating the entry of emergency aid, including fuel and medical supplies, into the Gaza Strip. A combination of these positions has become the dominant feature of the foreign policy custom of the Western colonial axis that supports Israel, and this is not strange in the strategies of American hegemony and its commitment to the supremacy of Israel as a colonial entity.
What the American administration is doing , is positioning itself as a direct enemy of the Palestinian people, through its full partnership with the Israeli aggression rather even the continued occupation and even the genocidal agression against our people .
In this context, hostile actions on the ground compete with words and political positions issued by the White House. On the one hand, Washington has pushed its newest military assets, to the eastern Mediterranean with tens of thousands of US sailors and Marines and hundreds of advisors and military experts on the borders of the Gaza Strip and provided israel with the latest editions of its bombs that are used against our people now .
On the other hand, and in its futile effort to break the will of the Palestinian people and displace them from their land and to end the needed implementation of self determination principal , Washington provided a diplomatic shield to the extremist far right government in Israel without red lines, and blocked three projects in the Security Council , where the fourth draft resolution is being blocked, calling for stopping the aggression and expediting the entry of urgent aid through humanitarian ceasefire and corridors for the civilians in Gaza strip.
At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken with his hypocritical talk about the 2 state solution ,took the lead in speaking on behalf of Israel during the UN Security Council session, responding to calls demanding the necessity of a ceasefire by saying, “These requests are not possible now,” despite the presence of the representative of the occupying state in the Council sessions issuing his warnings that “every country or non-governmental entity should not be thinking about attacking Israel.”
The Biden administration, immersed in collapsing power dynamics, believes that its control over events in the region is iron-clad. Through its arrogant hegemonic policies, it is pushing to raise the level of the flames of the existing fires in Gaza to ignite them in other regions , despite its repeated declarations of its unwillingness to expand the scope of the war. The decisive turning point towards escalation came with White House National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan announcing that his country “does not draw red lines for Israel” in its (retaliatory war). In addition, his unfair statements when he said: “We do not believe that the ceasefire in Gaza is the right path now” , which came in conjunction with his refusal to comment on Israel’s satisfactory long-term goal to stop this crazy war on the Gaza Strip.
These irresponsible policies put the entire region on a powder keg capable of exploding at any moment, given that the Israeli occupation army has been given the green light to continue its crimes in the way it deems appropriate, including the possibility of using internationally banned weapons.
And here we can quote an Israeli Minister threatening using a nuclear bomb against Gaza .
The ruling elites in Washington have torn down all concepts of international peace and security, and erased the international rules used in wars, and international humanitarian law, which provides protection for people and places including “hospitals, schools,churches , civilians, relief workers, and safe ways to provide emergency assistance.” It also abolished Palestinian time and geography, and placed its internal laws above all other considerations. It prevented its employees from using phrases such as: “ceasefire,” “ending the conflict,” “stopping the bloodshed,” “protecting civilians.” And replaced them with the phrase “we understand Israel’s right to defend itself.” With the absence of real positions that pressure its interests in the region.
While never in history an occupier state was given the right to defend itself from the people it occupies. On the contrary international treaties and law had provided all ways of resistance to any people under occupation , the way the Greek people fighter and resisted the occupation during history for your freedom .
Washington, which wants to restore its destroyed prestige in Ukraine in front of the Russian army, and the reputation of the israel occupation army, which it has built over the past 75 years on our land to be the spearhead of its colonial interests in the region, now feels that it is at the top of the falling slope, likely to descend towards the slope faster than it expected. Therefore, it behaves like a wounded elephant that has lost its pride, seeking to rise up to complete the exercise of the power of the falsity of the history narrated on the victor’s statements, and intend to silence all voices and crush everyone who stands in its way and rejects its policy, even if it is a Palestinian child among more than 4000 whose death certificates were issued before issuing their birth certificates for life in Gaza.
Even the Palestinian flag, which represents the hopes of a people struggling for their stolen freedom, has almost become banned in a number of European Union countries and is being tried according to the laws of those countries, as is the case in Israel itself now. I was struck with pain and extreme sadness, as well as anger, over the security authorities’ arrest of one of the Palestinian boys when he raised the flags of Greece and Palestine in Syndugma Square in Athens. Two intertwined flags that the boy raised on an electricity pole to reflect the solidarity between the peoples of the two peoples and the values that unite them, including the principles of freedom, justice, equality, the dignity of peoples, and their right to self-determination. As well as the return to the oppression of peoples and occupation.
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