{"id":2390,"date":"2007-09-23T05:57:12","date_gmt":"2007-09-23T10:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2007-09-23T06:01:39","modified_gmt":"2007-09-23T11:01:39","slug":"occupation-still-the-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=2390","title":{"rendered":"Occupation still the issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The core of the Middle East’s many problems remains Israel’s military occupation of Arab lands, writes Mohamed Higazy<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Upon invitation of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a conference was convened 22 June 2007 to mark 40 years of the Israeli occupation of Arab territories. The conference reflected in its debate the commitment of all spectrums of Indian society to support the just cause of the Palestinian people and their plight. Therefore, I feel obliged at the outset to express a word of recognition and gratitude to the Indian government and the people of India who have stood, over the years, firm and committed on the side of justice and in supporting the independence of Palestine and the end of the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

We have all been following the tragic events taking place in the Gaza Strip recently. It is certainly sad to see brothers turning against each other after decades of heroic resistance. Palestinians should remain united and should not crack under the heavy-handed policy of the occupation. Like so much that has been going wrong in the occupied territories, these regrettable events are merely a symptom of the root cause of the problem affecting the Middle East as a whole, which is the continuation of the Israeli occupation. We all hope that the Palestinian Authority with the help of Arab and international partners will bring peace and reconciliation between the different Palestinian factions.<\/p>\n

The latest developments in Gaza should not at any moment draw our attention away from the fundamental reality of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and what is left in Lebanese occupied territories, as being the core issue of the conflict in the Middle East. The Israeli occupation should be looked at as the illness and any other development as merely a symptom. Therefore, ending the occupation is like curing the disease that has exhausted the body of Palestine and anguished the heart of the Middle East, as well as preoccupying for decades the mind of the whole world.<\/p>\n

[Read the essay<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The core of the Middle East’s many problems remains Israel’s military occupation of Arab lands, writes Mohamed Higazy* Upon invitation of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a conference was convened 22 June 2007 to mark 40 years of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-Cy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}