New Delhi: Ahead of Israel’s parliamentary elections, Palestinian people are once again being made to “pay the price” for that country’s domestic politics, Palestine’s envoy to India Abdullah M Abu Shawesh said on Wednesday, August 19, and alleged that with ballots, Israelis want to choose leaders to “rule us with bullets”.
“Palestinian land is not an electoral prize. Palestinian lives are not campaign currency. Palestinian rights are not ballots to be counted in an Israeli election,” he said at a press conference held at the Palestinian Embassy here and asserted that “we are monitoring” this election.
He also described the Board of Peace, unveiled by US President Donald Trump in January, as a step towards “resolving” the conflict in Gaza, and argued that it wasn’t an initiative to build lasting peace in Gaza.
India’s MEA visit to Palestine
During the press meet, when asked about the ongoing visit of Secretary (CPV & OIA) Sripriya Ranganathan to the Ministry of External Affairs to Palestine, Shawesh said she called on Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
“Discussions focused on further strengthening the longstanding India-Palestine partnership and advancing bilateral cooperation across key areas of mutual interest,” the Representative Office of India (ROI) to the State of Palestine in Ramallah also posted on X.
Ranganathan also met with the Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, in Ramallah, and many senior officials.
“There is a team of a high-rank diplomat in Palestine since yesterday… India is going to establish three main projects, and the first one is a hospital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced about it during his visit to Palestine in 2017. We are going to start the implementation of that project, and yesterday we signed the final papers,” Abu Shawesh told reporters.
Another project relates to vocational training, and there will be centre for that in Palestine, and “we are very close to it,” he added.
Ranganathan is on an official visit to Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon from August 16-21.
The ROI, Ramallah, posted on X that she called on Palestine’s Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan and discussed avenues to further strengthen India’s support to the Palestinian health sector.
“She highlighted India’s expanding support to the Palestinian health sector, including essential medicines and anti-cancer drugs, an Artificial Limb Fitment Camp, and the deployment of an Indian field hospital in Gaza. During the engagement, Secretary (CPV & OIA) also handed over a consignment of medicines from the Government of India to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, reaffirming India’s continued support to Palestinian healthcare services,” it said.
Palestinian ambassador accuses Israel of shielding extremist settlers
During the briefing here, the Palestinian ambassador accused Israel of granting impunity to “extremist Israeli settlers,” who, he alleged, are frightening and harassing Palestinians to dispossess and ultimately drive them out of their ancient homeland.
Sixty-nine days ahead of the Israeli parliamentary election, the Palestinian people are once again “being made to pay the price” for Israeli domestic politics, he said.
The price we are paying must be monitored, says Ambassador
During the press meet, Abu Shawesh also showed a couple of video clips, which purportedly showed alleged acts of beating and cruelty meted out to “some Palestinians,” to buttress his claim.
This is not merely election rhetoric; this is what is happening on the ground right now, he alleged.
Calling upon the international community on this issue, he said, “today, the price that we are paying must be monitored”.
Palestine’s main strategy is to fight for homeland
Later, interacting with PTI, the envoy said, “We did not stop monitoring what is happening in Israel, because it’s affecting our daily life, it’s affecting our salaries, it’s affecting our water, it’s affecting our future.”
He asserted that Palestine’s main strategy is a fight for our homeland, and “we will not leave our homeland. We will do our ultimate best.”
On the Israeli election, he alleged that “unfortunately, again and again, we the Palestinians are still paying the price for those fanatic people”. The Israeli leaders want to be back to lead Israel through the ballot, and to “rule us with bullets.”
The Palestinian Embassy later, in a statement, said, “In Israel, an old political truth remains: the easiest way to secure those votes is on the back of the Palestinian people.”
“Annexation of the occupied West Bank; relentless settlement expansion; enormous budgets for settlements and fanatic settlers; impunity for extremist Israeli settler terror; and policies designed to frighten, dispossess and ultimately drive Palestinians from their ancient homeland,” it said.
Opposition in Israel does not offer much hope
Asked if Palestine was closely watching the upcoming elections in Israel, the envoy said, “Yes…we are monitoring the election.”
On a query on what was Palestine’s anticipation about the outcome of the election in Israel, and whether it will recalibrate its strategy based on that outcome, Abu Shawesh said the political opposition side in Israel didn’t offer much hope to the Palestinian cause.
Much of the Israeli opposition offers little reason for optimism. It too increasingly competes over who can take the harder line against the Palestinian people, he said, adding that genuine commitment to a just peace has “almost disappeared” from Israeli political debate.
The envoy accused Israel of pursuing a policy of “maximum territory and minimum Palestinian population”.
Asked if Palestine was hopeful of seeing lasting peace in Gaza, he said, “If there is a will, if the international community has a will, there is a way.”
In January, at Davos, Trump unveiled his Board of Peace that seeks to work towards bringing lasting peace to Gaza and possibly resolve other global conflicts.
