Palestinian military operations against enemies not terrorist acts
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/7/2006

Palestinian Ambassador to Iran, Salah al-Zawawi, said that those speaking about international terrorism should note that military operations against enemies are not considered as terrorist acts, but killing members of a family are actually terrorism.

According to an article appearing on the front page of the Persian morning daily, Resalat, on Wednesday, he made the remarks while speaking to reporters at a press conference in the Palestinian Embassy here on Wednesday.

Turning to the recent incidents in Gaza Strip, he said that the Palestinian nation has been defending its territory and sanctities for the past century.

"However, today the situation is quite cumbersome and sensitive.

We are not terrorists and have said that we are prepared to release the arrested Israeli soldier against 450 under-18 teenagers and 100 women who are imprisoned by the Zionists.

"But our proposal has been rejected. This is while Israel has so far made such exchanges with many Palestinian and non-Palestinian organizations," he added.

Al-Zawawi pointed to the remarks of the officials and President George W. Bush who urged Palestine to release the arrested Israeli soldier as a prerequisite for Israel to stop its violation in Gaza, and said that the spokesman of US administration calls these heroic movements 'terrorism'.

"Even some of the countries which we considered as allies cooperate with them," he added.

Turning to the Operations Summer Rain launched in Gaza by the Zionist regime, he said, "They levelled bridges, water installations and power plants." Meanwhile, the prime minister's office was bombarded, 24 members of parliament were taken hostages from their residences and nine of our ministers were arrested. However, there was no reaction to this and no one even condemned the move." The Palestinian diplomat said that the Zionist regime is getting prepared for an all-out attack on Gaza Strip, adding that the world conscience should be moved and stop such a catastrophe.

He asked whether the assassination of leaders of a nation and arresting ministers and MPs are not considered terrorist acts.

"The Zionist regime martyred a number of our leaders, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Kamal Advan, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Fathi Shaqaqi," he added.

He called on Arab and Islamic states as well as the world freethinkers to take note to the situation in Palestine and stop the Zionists attacks.

Expressing his wish that the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will say the truth, he called on the world to leave dual criteria aside.

"The world is now in chaos and it is claimed that Iran intends to possess atomic bomb. This is while Iran says that it is just seeking its own right and Israel possesses dozens of nuclear warheads. The world should quit such dual approaches to the current problems," he added.

Concerning holocaust, he said that the genuine holocaust is what is taking place against the Palestinian nation.

"We dismiss any atrocity. Our opposition to Jews is not for the sake of their being Jews. We are rather against Zionism, which has occupied our homeland and conducts the worst operations against our nation.

"If a Jew gets killed on account of being Jewish, we will condemn the act, irrespective of it having occurred either during the World War II or today," added the diplomat.

He referred to Hamas victory in Palestine's parliamentary election and formation of a government by them and said that the countries claiming to be advocates of human rights have not accepted the outcome of the election.

Al-Zawawi added that in their view democracy can exist anywhere in the world, except Palestine, where it is banned.

"The human rights bodies talking of `human rights' pay attention to all nations, with the exception of Palestine. The US and other countries have boycotted the Palestinian government, which resulted in great loss to the country's economy.

"Palestinian employees have not been paid for the past five months and we are short of medical facilities and medicine," he concluded.

Previous Stories:
  Israeli military actions criticized at first UN Human Rights Council   (7/6/2006)
  Israel arrests 5 Hamas members   (7/6/2006)
  Israel attack on Gaza raises death toll to 12   (7/6/2006)

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