Palestine needs global support, says Researcher

The distress and anger was palpable on her face. With a dejected voice, Yasmeen Qadan rued that the people of beleaguered Palestinian land were not getting enough support from the international community.

“In 70s and 80s, Palestine received ample support from the international community, especially of the Arab world. But the situation has changed now and the Arab world is mired in its own internal conflicts,” she remarked.

DT News bumped into Yasmeen Qadan, of Berzeit University, Palestine, on the sidelines of the inaugural session of first Euro-Arab Meeting for Young Researchers in Social Sciences here yesterday.

Qadan said that the situation in Palestine escalated after Israel began troubles at Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest mosque in Islam. “People of Jerusalem began to oppose the forbidden activities of Israeli forces.”

According to her, Israel has victimised Palestinian culturally, socially and economically. Now, Palestinians are supposed to pass through more than two check posts while traveling within the country.

“There are also social restrictions on Palestinians. There are blue card holders as well as green card holders. Green card holders live in West Bank or Gaza and the blue card holders live in the Palestinian land occupied by Israel,” she revealed.

“The blue card holders can’t enter into marital relations with green card holders. The social condition in Palestine is getting complicated,” said Qadan, who lives in Ramallah.

“Israeli army had always been violent and it continuously justified its violence against Palestine. They claim that we are terrorists. But they curbed our right to live in the Palestinian land,” she alleged.

Commenting on the use of knives against Israelis, she said that the Palestinians had been using them because they didn’t have any other weapons to defend themselves. “Recently Israelis killed a whole family in an airstrike. But we don’t have any modern weapons to fight Israeli hostility. So we have to resort to weapons like knives or swords to protect ourselves,” she explained.

Qadan said peace would prevail in Palestine if Israel fulfilled the demands of Palestinians. “Let them give Palestinians their rights and allow the Palestinian refugees to come back to their land,” she added.