The events unfolding in Gaza are nothing short of genocide, Palestinian ambassador to Cyprus Abdallah Attari told MPs on Tuesday, calling on the country to be on the right side of history.
“How many Palestinians have to be killed for this genocide to end? Are six children per hour enough? Perhaps four dead women every hour is enough? Are 11,000 dead in 39 days enough?” he asked deputies at the House foreign affairs committee.
“Are 30,000 injured enough? Is a month without medicine, water, electricity, and a roof enough? Is the destruction of 200,000 residences enough? Perhaps 100 families that have been completely erased, is that enough? Is this self-defence?”
Attari said the world should not get used to the idea that the number of dead in Gaza will increase every day, adding Gaza is not only the largest open-air prison in history, but has also become the largest mass grave “due to the apartheid state of Israel.”
Attari was invited to attend the parliamentary committee, two weeks after the Israeli ambassador attended the same committee.
He added the Palestinian problem is an “ongoing Nakba” which began in 1948 and not on October 7.
The ambassador added he was in favour of the Israeli hostages being returned, who number more than 200, but specified Israel should also return the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners it has been holding, some for over 30 years.
He called on the Cypriot government, parliament and the EU to exert pressure “so as to stop this genocide.
“History has not been written yet. Let us make sure to be on the right side of history. On the side of justice and not repeat mistakes of the past.”
“The Palestinian people will not forgive our silence. Silence means complicity.”
Chairman of the committee Disy MP Harris Georgiades said it was a “dramatically difficult situation” unfolding the region. He added the extreme, terrorist and fanatic Hammas does not serve the best interests of the Palestinians either.
Asked whether or not he agreed with the Palestinian ambassador’s criticism of the lukewarm reaction of the international community, Georgiades the committee had heard the ambassador of Israel, the foreign minister and now the ambassador of Palestine.
“We have heard the approach of the ambassador the Palestinian authority without any reservation,” Georgiades noted.
Akel’s MP George Loucaides said what was happening in Gaza was part of Israel’s attempt to carry out ethnic cleansing, an ongoing genocide, a systematic violation of human rights and the imposition of an apartheid regime by Israel against the Palestinian people.
He spoke of the killing of innocent children, women and civilians, the ongoing, deliberate and organised bombing of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques and residential areas, and the continuing siege of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“And some people in the world, but unfortunately also the vast majority of the political forces and the government in this country, which is under occupation, suffering from colonisation, facing similar dangers from occupying Turkey, do not have an interest in uttering a word of condemnation.”
“Is it possible to talk about humanitarian corridors and not have the humanity to demand an end to ethnic cleansing, an end to genocide? Is it possible to talk about humanitarian corridors and not demand an immediate ceasefire?”