Tunisia called on the international community to draw lessons from distant and recent history, and from past and present tragedies, to end the occupation and return to the Palestinian people all their legitimate and internationally recognised rights.
This came in a speech delivered on Tuesday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad, Nabil Ammar, at the high-level ministerial event in Geneva.
The minister said Tunisia has always been in favour of peace based on justice and will continue to fully support just causes and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freedom and independence, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
He reiterated Tunisia’s categorical rejection of all forms and attempts of expulsion and forced displacement of Palestinians.
He also urged those who take an irresponsible position to restore their credibility and act in accordance with their international obligations, calling on the media and journalists to carry out their dutie
s with all impartiality and professionalism and to preserve what can be preserved of the so-called “freedom of expression”.
Nabil Ammar said that it is unacceptable to adopt a narrative that does not distinguish between the occupied aggressor and its victim, and that decades of policies of arrogance and terrorism have failed to undermine the determination of the Palestinian people to claim their land and rights.
He added that after 17 years of blockade and 75 years of disenfranchisement, the Gaza Strip in Palestine is witnessing an unprecedented chapter of atrocities against Palestinians.
For the first time in modern history, the world is witnessing this level of crimes by a coalition using the world’s most advanced military means against unarmed civilians, innocent children, women and UN personnel, he pointed out.
He considered that the international community “has abdicated its responsibility to prevent and immediately stop this barbaric aggression and to hold the occupying power accountable for this ge
nocide”.
Nabil Ammar stressed that this organised failure “undermines the credibility of the multilateral system and turns the world into a vast jungle, in addition to being a colossal failure of the narrative of the parties that present themselves as beacons of values and democratic freedoms”.
He said the gap between the original objectives of the multilateral system and its actual achievements had become unbearable, in addition to the loss of confidence in it and the shaking of its credibility at the global level.
The world “has become governed by the power of arms alone and by predatory and irresponsible economics,” he said.
The Foreign Minister added that this dynamic points to an imminent threat to the right to life and to the security and sustainability of the planet, as “the genocide in Gaza is a perfect and shameful example of the failure of the system created since 1948”.
Nabil Ammar stressed that the world can no longer turn a blind eye to the real nature of the conflict, which remains a questi
on of occupation, confiscation of land, illegal settlements and systematic violations of human rights and genocide of a people since 1948.
He underlined Tunisia’s position on the urgent need for fundamental and democratic reforms at the level of global political, economic and financial governance, for greater accountability, credibility and effectiveness, recalling Tunisia’s leading, forward-looking and humanitarian positions and its standing for solutions, not problems.
Today’s high-level event in Geneva focused on “The situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law”.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse