After the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s response of bombing Gaza, the Palestinian Ambassador to India spoke to Brut about the situation in Gaza.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We are here with the Palestinian ambassador to India, Adnan Abu Al-Hijja.
00:05I wanted to ask you on aid reaching Gaza, what is the situation like?
00:10Yes, for the moment, I think there is enough. But the problem is that the closure is still there.
00:16We are for the 16th day without electricity, without water, without medicine, without food,
00:25without oxygen, without petrol. So you can imagine 2.2 people living in open prison, right?
00:38And also do all that. That won't affect Hamas. That affects the Palestinian people.
00:45Now there is humanitarian aid in Egypt. Lots of it.
00:50At the normal times, before the siege, hundreds of trucks entered Gaza and it was not enough.
01:01What entered Gaza during the last 16 days up to now is 20 trucks.
01:08And it's medicine, it's not food. Most of it I think it's medicine.
01:15So this is war crime. We have heard Ursula, this leader of the European Union,
01:25when it was from the Russian on Ukraine, she described it as war crime.
01:33But those who are looking to the Palestinian cause in double standard,
01:39she said Israel has the right to defend itself. Right? It is war crimes.
01:46Should be ended as soon as possible. Real pressure from the international community.
01:53I know they are defended by some European countries like Britain and let me say United States.
02:04But the world is not only Britain and the United States. This war crime should be ended
02:13and the siege should be ended also. All this humanitarian aid should enter to Gaza.
02:22Can you give us a sense right now on what is your assessment in Gaza as of today?
02:28It is war crimes. It is genocide. It is ethnic cleansing covered by the United States
02:38and some other European countries. The free hand of Mr. Netanyahu,
02:46who does not need reason to commit massacres. You can watch and you have seen what has happened
03:00with that hospital. At the beginning, yes, they said we targeted members of Hamas.
03:06When they have seen the number of casualties, they changed the story and they said Jihad Islamic rocket, something like that.
03:14What are the options at this point in time for the Palestinians?
03:18First of all, let me say that the Palestinian people make two mistakes in their life.
03:24First mistake, it was 1948 when the Haganah organization make many massacres of the Palestinian people.
03:37So they treat the Palestinian people with the media from Britain at that time.
03:43So 950,000 flee of Palestine to as a refugee to other areas.
03:51The decision of the Palestinian people now is ready to die in the land of Palestine
04:02and be buried in the land of Palestine and that mistake won't happen with the Palestinian again.
04:10This is our decision. Now we are expecting more massacres.
04:15Not in Gaza only because maybe one of the reasons of what has happened on the 7th of October
04:26that the Israeli since has formed this government at the beginning of this year.
04:32Before 7th of November in West Bank they have killed 260 people.
04:39They confiscate the highest number of land in Israel history.
04:46With this government Netanyahu, Ben Ghaffir and Smotrich.
04:51It's a very extreme government. The killing of the armed militia of their settlers
04:58to the Palestinian youth and people affecting their life, burning their homes, uprooting their olive trees,
05:08stealing the fruit of the olive trees from the people after they collect it by weapon.
05:15All that also we can't forget Al-Aqsa what's going at Al-Aqsa Mosque also.
05:22All these crimes of this government and its militias the settlers affect the situation
05:29and it's one reason of what has happened on the 7th of October.
05:34I want to discuss a little bit about the Middle East and the Arab world as well.
05:40Do you think somewhere in the last couple of years the Palestinian cause has come low in priority of the Arab world?
05:48No, it's not like that. Maybe the Israelis has managed with the pressure from the United States
05:54to normalize relation with the three Arab countries.
05:59But if you notice the demonstrations in the Arab countries now from the Gulf countries,
06:07maybe not in the United Arab Emirates as an example, but it is in Bahrain, it is in Qatar,
06:13it is in Kuwait, it is in Jordan, everywhere.
06:19And millions sometimes are demonstrating.
06:23The Israelis are trying to go around the Palestinian cause.
06:30They think if they normalize relation with the Arab countries, they can easily solve the Palestinian cause.
06:42I would like to mention to Mr. Netanyahu and others.
06:47We are on the land and if he normalized the relation with everybody,
06:56we are the owner of the cause and we are the people on the land.
07:01He can make massacre as much as he wants,
07:05but first of all it's impossible to normalize the relation with all
07:13and you can easily notice not only in the Arab countries,
07:19but in the United States how the demonstration are going against Israel,
07:25against their crimes in Britain, in Holland, in France, everywhere now people are demonstrating against Israel.
07:34What do you think of India's response so far?
07:38Always we are looking for India from the beginning.
07:43Let me say India used to support the Palestinian cause since Mahatma Gandhi
07:49and it's well known what he said about Palestine, Britain and France,
07:55that Palestine is to the Arabs as France to the French and Britain to the, or England to the English.
08:06We want from India to do something with the international community,
08:12especially they knew very well the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people crisis with this occupation.
08:20India, I think, is a very important country.
08:24They can cooperate with European countries, with China, Russia, Arab countries,
08:32call for international conference, for peace international conference,
08:38and find a solution because we can't follow this way of war from time to time.
08:48We would like our children to wake up at the voice of the birds,
08:56not at the voice of the Israelis' rockets and bombs.
09:01What can a long term solution be at this point in time?
09:05To me, I hope it's the last war.
09:08To me, I hope we will go to the peace process as soon as possible, get our rights,
09:17because we are not going to live as slaves under this occupation forever.
09:24Those settlers who are coming from Russia, from Ukraine, from United States, from Britain, from Ethiopia,
09:33live as masters and we live in our homeland as slaves.
09:38This will never be accepted from the Palestinian people.
09:42And because of that, we should find peace process.
09:46We should find peaceful solution.
09:50Otherwise, this won't be the last one.
09:54Hope it's the last one.
09:56How do you view Hamas?
09:58Hamas is part of the Palestinian people.
10:02Hamas also, if there is no occupation, there is no armed organization from Hamas or any other organizations.
10:13The international law gives any people under occupation, under colonialism to resist in all means.
10:21So, go for peace.
10:26Hamas is ready to accept State of Palestine on the land of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.
10:34And I discussed that with some of their political leaders.
10:39Right. If there is a real political solution, Hamas will be a political party.
10:49Right. Mr. Al-Hajar, thank you so much for talking to Brut.
10:52Thank you very much. You are welcome.