Watch: ‘Luckily, Israeli Youth Can Have A Music Festival’ – Malta’s Palestinian Ambassador Says After Attacks
The world needs to remember the history of the Israeli-Palestine conflict before it condemns Palestinian “freedom fighters”, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Malta Fadi Hanania told Lovin Malta in the wake of a bloody weekend in the conflicted region.
After over 1,100 were left dead and hundreds more taken hostage following Palestinian infringements into Israel – including an attack on a music rave held on the border between Israeli Gaza and Palestinian Gaza – Lovin Malta spoke to the ambassador to understand what Palestinians are saying on the ground.
When asked about hundreds being left dead following the festival attack, Hanania was clear.
“Luckily, Israeli youth can have a music festival. Unfortunately on the other side of the Gaza border, they cannot have any kind of festival, they cannot have any sort of happy parties.”
Hanania emphasised the reality of people living right near each other – in two completely opposite levels of comfort, poverty and resources. And just yesterday, Israel ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off the entire area’s food and electricity sources.
“Palestinians in Gaza are surrounded by a wall, they are living on the same street basically, only separated by a wall, where on one side people are enjoying life while on the other side people have been destroyed by Israeli missiles for 15 years of blockade on the Gaza strip,” he said.
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And when asked if he believes the attacks can be termed as “terroristic” or whether Hamas is considered a terrorist group, he did not mince words.
“Hamas is composed of Palestinians who chose to be part of Hamas, they’ve been part of the last two Palestinian elections and there are a large number of Palestinians supporting Hamas,” he said.
“To say those who are under occupation and fighting for their freedom are a terrorist group is a big, big mistake to be honest,” he continued.
“I don’t accept our people being called terrorists, we are still under occupation, we have tried for many years of negotiating with Israel, we even had an interim peace process in 1995, a five year process to end the Israeli occupation by 2000, but unfortunately again Israel did not implement the UN resolutions.”
“Hamas are a Palestinian faction, and they are not a terrorist group – you cannot call people fighting for their freedom a terrorist group.”
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