Dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip today called on world leaders meeting in Jerusalem to attend a forum on the Holocaust to condemn and stop the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians.
This came during a stand organized by the national and Islamic forces (including all factions) in front of the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (west of Gaza), titled Real Holocaust, the massacres committed by the occupation against our Palestinian people.
Mahmoud Khalaf, a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said - in a speech on behalf of the factions - that the true Holocaust was the successive Israeli massacres over the past decades, from the occupation of our land and the confiscation of our people's rights to live freely in an independent, sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.
He added that the establishment of this celebration of Jerusalem is a misleading of the world and future generations, and an attempt to support (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu in his campaign.
Khalaf called on world leaders to visit the West Bank to learn about Israeli crimes of settlement, barriers, arrests, killings and field executions of Palestinians.
Khalaf called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its blockade of the Gaza Strip for the 13th year in a row, and to implement international resolutions related to the rights of the Palestinian people.
In turn, the leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, Khaled Al-Batsh, said, in a speech to him on the sidelines of the endowment, that this forum aims to falsify history and perpetuate the Judaization of Jerusalem. He added that this gathering is a lifeline to Zionist war criminals, led by Netanyahu.
With the participation of more than forty leaders, the Fifth International Holocaust Forum will be held in West Jerusalem on Thursday. Israel commemorates annually the Holocaust, the genocide of Jewish communities in Europe, which occurred during World War II at the hands of the German Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler.