SINCE the start of the Israel-Gaza crisis on October 7 last year, more than 40 000 Palestinians have lost their lives. NewsDay reporter Vanessa Gonye (ND) spoke to Palestinian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Tamar Almassri (TA), who shared his views on the on-going conflict between his country and Israel. He termed Israeli atrocities inhuman and called for international community intervention. He also speaks about relations with Zimbabwe.
ND: Can you please briefly unpack the issues surrounding the relations between Israel and Palestine?
TA: The relation between Palestine and Israel is that of a colonial power and an oppressed people. It’s the same as that of apartheid South Africa and the South African people.
Or that of the so-called South Rhodesian apartheid regime and the Zimbabwean people.
We are under occupation in the 21st century by a new or modern State that was established in 1948 on our lands, in our holy land of Palestine.
Israel is not a normal country because it came into being as a result of immigration, it is a country built by immigrants.
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It’s a colonial power and an apartheid regime. It’s a killing machine, just as you can see these days in the Israeli genocide in Gaza Strip.
ND: Please explain the October 7 events in Gaza and how they represent the plight of Palestinians.
TA: The main issue is occupation. Israel is occupying Palestine. Israel is oppressing the Palestinian people.
According to United Nations resolutions or according to the charter of the United Nations and according to the international law, any oppressed country, any oppressed people has the right to resist occupation. Now they criticise October 7. We did not choose October 7.
For us, even I’m talking about the Palestinian leadership, we didn’t support it, but you cannot ignore the Palestinian catastrophe and start the history from October 7. Israel is occupying Palestine.
Israel actually steals the Palestinian land every single day in the West Bank and the holy city of Jerusalem. Israel imposed the hardest siege in Gaza Strip. Israel deals with the Palestinian people as human animals, so that should bring any reaction.
Israel, actually, was holding in its jails at that time more than 7 000 Palestinians, some of them children less than 16. Others were women, pregnant women who would give birth in the jails.
All of that can bring reaction and actually, any occupation, if you want to speak about human rights, any occupation to any kind of people in the world should bring reaction.
Any human being should react against the oppression, against apartheid, against discrimination, against racism.
If they consider us as human beings and they recognise that Israel is the occupying power, they should understand that it should be a reaction. But if they consider us as human animals, yes, we shouldn’t have any reaction.
ND: In numbers, what is the extent of damage and fatalities on the people of Palestine during the ongoing attacks?
TA: Israel has been committing the clearest genocide in history in front of the media. It is not our word. It’s the expression of the ICJ [International Court of Justice] and the ICC [International Criminal Court].
Israel killed in Gaza Strip almost 40 000. We have about 12 000 missing under the rubbles. Actually, we are talking about 52 000 up to 55 000 martyrs, 17 000 of them are women. Some of these women are mothers and some of them were pregnant.
They were killed for no reasons, but because they are Palestinians and because fate brought them to that area, Gaza. Israel actually destroyed more than 95 of the Gaza Strip homes.
One of them, my home, destroyed totally, attacked by F16 fighter jets, American models, for nothing. They killed my mother during the war.
Apart from 13 universities and colleges, Israel also destroyed more than 1 200 mosques, masjids in Gaza Strip.
We have more than 15 000 children, less than 16-year-olds who were killed. Israel destroyed schools in Gaza Strip.
Israel, during this genocide, cut electricity, water, destroyed infrastructure, cut medical supplies.
And we are the only place in the world that adults and children die from starvation, from hunger, because Israel prevented food from coming in. Israel killed almost 160 journalists.
It’s the highest number in any conflict in the world since the Second World War. Israel has also butchered or killed the highest number of international relief workers. And it is not our statistics, it’s the United Nations (UN).
Israel killed the highest number of UN employees in the Gaza Strip. Since the establishment of UN in 1945, Israel killed more than 530, more than 30 doctors and ambulance officers, nurses in Gaza Strip. And they arrested our medical teams from our hospitals. And we have now about 500 in jails.
Israel is a criminal controlled or led by militias.
ND: In October, Israel intensified its 16-year blockade on Gaza, cutting off all supplies including food, water, electricity, fuel and medicines, aggravating the humanitarian catastrophe. In your view, how do you think the continued attacks can be solved?
TA: Let’s say that without any pressure from the international community, especially from the people of the countries that support Israel with weapons and through international organisations like the United Nations, this war will continue.
Now, what we have in Israel is abnormal leadership. They are extremists, racists and they say that the Jewish race is the best and the others can be our servants, especially the Arabs and the Africans. They don’t hide such kind of opinions.
We can say that the international community, unfortunately, failed to prove that there is equality among human beings.
Israel is a colonial power supported by other colonial powers and that should stop. They should deal with Israel as they dealt with the South African apartheid regime in the last few years of its age.
Israel should be boycotted, should be taken to the international courts and should not be above international law.
Israel should be sieged or sanctioned because of its crimes. This is actually the only way that can push Israel to stop its crimes.
ND: To what extent is the Benjamin Netanyahu government infringing on the rights of the Palestinian people?
TA: We have very extremist leaders in the Israeli coalition nowadays. Benjamin Netanyahu is actually a corrupted leader and he is wanted by the Israeli court for three cases.
He tried to take the extremist positions from the conflict just to show himself and to attract the extremists in the Israeli society.
Actually, most of them now are extremists because they failed as a society to integrate with each other.
Everyone seemed to recognise the Israeli government, no one recognised the Palestinian right. Not a single person recognised that we should go to the Palestinians to establish or to give the Palestinians their independence or to end the occupation.
ND: The Israeli offensive in Gaza from May 9 to 13 saw 11 Palestinian civilians die, including four children. Also, 103 homes were destroyed. How do you feel about the ongoing attacks and killings?
TA: As I mentioned in my last answer, Israel is a criminal State. If Israel is treated by the international community as a normal country, the Israeli occupation will continue.
The Gaza Strip has been under occupation since 2006. A lot of people have lost their lives because there is no medication, no electricity in hospitals, no food. It is not life.
How do all those countries that claim to support human, children’s, women rights, democracy, freedom of speech, equality feel, when they see that Israel uses hunger, siege as a weapons against civilians? I think history should not be merciful with them.
ND: From 2023 to 2024 reports, Amnesty International’s in-depth field investigation of the killing of 229 people in nine unlawful airstrikes found that Israel violated international humanitarian law, including by failing to take feasible precautions to spare civilians or by carrying out indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between civilian and military objects or by carrying out attacks that may have been directed at civilian objects. Do you feel the international community is doing enough to push for the freedom of Palestine?
TA: Unfortunately, it is not enough.
We have great relations with the international community and solidarity from everywhere, but we are talking about the official floor. Israel is supported by some countries which are actually responsible for creating some colonial powers before.
Unfortunately, as a result of America’s support for Israel, one of the main problems is achieving justice in Palestine, achieving the independence in Palestine, achieving liberty in Palestine, ending the Israeli occupation and ending the Israeli oppression against the Palestinian people.
I can say that we need more understanding that our area cannot be stable without solving the Palestinian issue.
ND: How are relations between Palestine and Zimbabwe, especially considering the current situation?
TA: Actually, you know that Zimbabwe is not a friend country, it’s a sister country. We are brothers in arms. Before the liberation of Zimbabwe, our national movement of Palestine started the relation with the Zimbabwean national movement in 1970.
We were struggling together against the South Tunisian apartheid regime and against the apartheid regime.
Actually, the relation after independence was of principle. We received great support from Zimbabwe since day one of its independence in 1980.
The relation is growing, the friendship is growing, the solidarity is growing, because we pay also our solidarity with Zimbabwe against the illegal sanctions.
We cannot close our eyes on this sensitive issue. The relation between Zimbabwe and Palestine, it’s a comradeship between two sister countries.
We highly appreciate the support that we received from Zimbabwe, as Palestine against the apartheid genocide nowadays.