The chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian people and condemned Israel’s brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 500 civilians, including children, women and elderly.
In a meeting with foreign media representatives on Tuesday, Rehman said that the position of Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, regarding the Palestine issue was still the same as before the establishment of Pakistan.
He said that Jinnah had rejected the proposal of the United Nations to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state, and had written a letter to the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1945, stating that he could not accept such a plan.
Rehman said that the land of Palestine belonged to the Palestinians and could not be divided or occupied by Israel, which he called an illegitimate and oppressive entity. He said that Israel and Palestine were at war, and that any action could be taken in war, including armed resistance by the Palestinian factions, such as Hamas, which he praised for their courage and sacrifice.
He accused the United States and Britain of directly supporting Israel’s aggression and bringing their troops to Palestine. He said that it was not a war with the Mujahideen of Hamas, but a direct attack on Gaza City, where hospitals, schools and residential buildings were being targeted. He called on the international community to declare Israelis as war criminals and hold them accountable for their atrocities.
He also said that the Palestinians were the direct parties to the Palestine issue and that without their participation and consent, no solution was possible. He criticized the Arab countries that had normalized their relations with Israel, saying that they had betrayed the Palestinian cause and the Muslim Ummah. He said that the Muslim Ummah did not stand with its brothers in the same way that the Western world stood with Israel.
He said that today, humanity was being killed in Palestine and that the world should not remain silent and indifferent to the plight of the oppressed. He said that the Israelis should remember how the Nazis had massacred them, and asked why they were taking revenge from the Palestinians, who had nothing to do with their suffering. He said that the Palestinians had the right to live in peace and dignity in their own land, and that the world should recognize their legitimate aspirations.