Qatar participates in Arab League's Nakba Day 75th Anniversary and Palestinian Prisoners Commemoration

Qatar, represented by its permanent delegation to the Arab League, participated in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba and the Palestinian Prisoners' Day, organised by the Arab League's General Secretariat today at its headquarters in Cairo.Assistant Arab League Secretary-General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories Affairs Ambassador Said Abu Ali said in a speech on behalf of the Secretary-General that the Nakba's anniversary recalls the terrible tragedy that befell the Palestinian people as a result of the occupation of their land, their unjust and aggressive displacement, and their being subjected to a series of heinous crimes and massacres. He added that this occasion is also a reminder of the continued absence of international justice and the Palestinian people's continuous cry out to global conscience for more than seven decades.He added that crimes committed will not fall under a statute of limitations no matter how much times passes, calling for the activation of international justice mechanisms to prosecute Israeli officials for their crimes and holding them accountable, explaining that the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the International Criminal Court to expedite its procedures in order to achieve this goal and ending this impunity.Abu Ali noted that this exact period in 1948, the world witnessed one of humanity's most heinous and horrific tragedies where more than 800,000 Palestinians were displaced from their villages and cities, and 531 towns and villages were completely demolished, with Zionist gangs committing crimes of ethnic cleansing through more than 70 massacres of Palestinians, claiming the lives of more than 15.000 Palestinians. The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs since the Nakba in 1948 to this day have reached about 100.000 martyrs.He pointed out that the Nakba is still ongoing to this present day through occupation, settlement building, land confiscation, house demolitions, sacrilege, and the destruction of all aspects of life of the Palestinian people, in a miserable attempt to undermine their determination and insistence on denying their rights and freedom.He added that the Arab League praises the United Nations General Assembly's resolution to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the United Nations headquarters, expressing full appreciation for the positions of the member states that supported the resolution, stressing the importance and necessity of concerted international efforts to put an end to this historical injustice.In this regard, Arab League Assistant Secretary-General stressed the need for the international community to assume a great responsibility in confronting the Israeli right-wing government's extreme tendencies, which do not hesitate to inflame the situation and push matters to the brink of an abyss in the Occupied Territories, highlighting that this government rejects the two-state solution and works to undermine it every single day, through its settlement projects and storming of the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, seeking to divide it temporally and spatially. He added that whilst it is true that the occupation controls the land, yet it will never be able to obliterate memory and the historical truth that this Israeli occupation is destined to disappear, as others did.For his part, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member and the head of the Refugee Affairs Department Dr. Ahmed Abu Houli said that despite the fact that 75 years passed since the Nakba, the Palestinian tragedy still goes on and the Palestinian people are still looking forward to returning to their homes, cities and villages taking their place among the world of nations.He highlighted the insistence of the Israeli entity since its inception to reject to comply with the resolution of international legitimacy, although some of which constitute a basis and a condition for its establishment and recognition by the international community. Instead, he added, the Israeli entity relies on imposing the legitimacy of the fait accompli as an alternative to international legitimacy.Abu Houli added that the position of the PLO is clear, and is based on adherence to the just and legitimate right of the Palestinian people to return to the homes they were expelled from in 1948, rejecting alternative homelands, instead thriving for the establishment of their independent and fully sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of June 4, 1967.