By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: India’s foreign policy on Israel-Palestine conflict has changed in the last ten years, admitted Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer speaking in a conference on Israeli aggression and independence of Palestine on 14th May.
The national conference was jointly held on the completion of 60 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine under the auspices of the Joint Committee of Muslim Organizations and Sadbhawna Mission at New Delhi’s Constitution Club.
Aiyer attributed the present situation of the Israel-Palestine conflict to the rejection the U.S. and Soviet Union of the suggestion made by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, which advocated the establishment of a democratic government under which both Jews and Palestinians should have the right to live there enjoying full freedom.
The conference passed a resolution calling for the ‘establishment of an independent and sovereign Sate of Palestine’. It extended support to people of Palestine and ‘the right of return of the refugees’ who have been victimized by Zionist campaign. The conference endorsed its favor for the ‘the resistance against the Israeli occupation’ with a call for ‘unity of all resistance forces in Palestine.’
It also called for the destruction of ‘the Apartheid Wall’ that has created ‘largest open air prison-cum-concentration camp for 2.5 Palestinians’ and demanded immediate ending of the siege of Gaza. The resolution demanded from the Government of India to immediately end all defense, military and intelligence ties, especially the purchase of armaments, with Israel. It also demanded Israel to honor the democratic verdict of Palestinian people and recognize the Hamas government. It called for the immediate halt of the policy of targeted assassination and indiscriminate killing of civilians, and for the release of more than ten thousand Palestinians, including women and children, languishing in Israeli prisons.
Those who spoke on the occasion included General Secretary of Samajwadi Party Shahid Siddiqui, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Dr. Qasim Rasool Ilyas, president of All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, secretary of All India Milli Council Maulana Abdul Wahhab Khilji and secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Ejaz Aslam.