Venezuelan Government Campaigns for Palestinian State

Mérida, September 21st 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – As the United Nations (UN) Security Council and General Assembly will debate the Palestinian cause and possible recognition of it as a sovereign state in the next few days, the Venezuelan government has produced a public letter supporting the Palestinian cause and has called for “worldwide debate” on the issue.

Venezuela’s foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, said the UN approved the Libyan National Transitional Council “by imperial decision and imposition”, despite the council not being “legitimate”, but does not [yet] recognise Palestine, which complies with the requirements for being a state.

“On the one hand the US and NATO promote the recognition of something they are calling the NTC [National Transitional Council], in a country that doesn’t have a government…it has been impossible for them to put together a government of all the fractions and groups of mercenaries,” Maduro said, referring to Libya.

Maduro, speaking on Telesur yesterday, said the Venezuelan government will hand over a letter from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to the general secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, as well as to other representatives of various countries, as a “call for world reflection, in order to head towards a process of recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to their land, to peace, and to life”.

Maduro said the point of Chavez’s letter was also to provoke “world debate” about “colonial methods of conquest, of domination, where they tear apart a people and have been permanently massacring them for decades”. The letter should promote “forums, debates, in the Arabic world and in the whole world,” Maduro added.

“We think the Palestinian cause should be a cause of the youth, of the social movements, of the union movements, of the intellectuals of the world. All these sectors need to react, as well as the governments,” he said.

Earlier this month, at its VI Political Conference, the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America (ALBA) also handed over a joint declaration to the UN supporting the recognition of the state of Palestine “along the borders prior to 1967, and with West Jerusalem as the capital. The ministers also support the right of the state of Palestine to be a full member of the United Nations”.

“The ALBA countries recognise Palestine as a nation and we hope that all countries join in this recognition so that Palestine can exercise its right in the United Nations,” Bolivian President Evo Morales said yesterday while talking to Telesur.

Also yesterday the Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Al Maliki, also a member to the UN, expressed his appreciation for Venezuela’s support and for the letter written by Chavez.

While meeting with Maduro in New York, he told press, “Chavez has decided to send the letter on his own initiative. These types of letters show that in times as difficult as these Venezuela is on the side of justice and the rights of Palestinians.”

This Friday Mahmud Abbas, on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority, will request Palestine’s entry into the UN as a member country. Thousands of people are rallying in Palestinian cities in support of the recognition of the country as an independent state.

128 countries support the move, but the decision to recognise Palestine is in the hands of the UN Security Council, which has fifteen member countries and five with veto power, including the United States. The United States does not recognise Palestine as an independent state.

In 2009 Venezuela expelled its Israeli ambassador and formally established diplomatic relations with Palestine, opening an embassy there.

“After sixty years of the crime of colonial occupation and eradication, it’s time for the peoples of the world to recognise Palestine,” Maduro concluded yesterday.