Qatar’s leadership and its people haves been firm supporters of the Palestinian cause and time and again the country has stressed that peace in the Middle-East can only be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands in a set timeframe, and by establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967 in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and international resolutions.
The country has also been at the forefront of developmental and humanitarian assistance to improve the Palestinians’ living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza. Qatar has provided assistance worth $1.2bn in the last eight years for education, electricity, infrastructure, housing, and job creation, and $150m to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has once again called for the enforcement of international legitimacy resolutions on basis of the two-state solution principle and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. This was stated in a message from H H the Amir, on the occasion of annual event organised by the United Nations Office in Vienna to mark the ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’.
In this message, H H the Amir said that solidarity with the Palestinian people this year has a special significance; given the collective punishment and genocide of Palestinians. Nothing has been spared by the occupation forces; they have targeted civilians and their homes, civilian infrastructure, schools, universities, places of worship and hospitals.
H H the Amir emphasised that the occupying forces have not even refrained from obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and have engaged in their forcible displacement in contravention of international humanitarian laws.
He highlighted the overwhelming humanitarian consequences of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Lebanon, stressing that it is imperative to put an end to bloodshed by the reaching a ceasefire.
H H the Amir reiterated Qatar’s unwavering commitment to exerting all possible efforts in mediation process to facilitate a truce agreement, underlining that the persistent failure of international community and the United Nations in halting the bloodshed.
H H the Amir condemned the repeated assaults on the Al Aqsa Mosque, emphasising the attempts to compromise the status quo, and the temporal and spatial division of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the undermining of the freedom of Muslims to pray therein are attempts that are null and void under international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions.
