CAIRO: The special session of the Arab Parliament on Palestine, under the title “Supporting Palestine and Gaza,” began on Thursday, headed by Parliament Speaker Adel Abdulrahman Al-Asoumi and held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo.
The session was attended by Speaker of the Jordanian Parliament Ahmed Safadi, Speaker of the Palestinian National Council Rawhi Fattouh, and several Arab parliamentary figures.
It began with a minute of silence in memory of the Palestinians who died as a result of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories.
During his speech, Al-Asoumi stressed the need for Arab solidarity in confronting Israel’s aggression against Palestinians, including their forced displacement, and denounced the state of international silence and the failure of the UN Security Council to reach a ceasefire resolution in Gaza.
Al-Asoumi affirmed the Arab Parliament’s full support for the Palestinian cause and stated that the Arab people will not accept infringements on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
He pointed to the regional and international movements led by the Arab Parliament to stop the war on Gaza.
Fattouh, for his part, called for the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, a lifting of the siege, and freedom of movement in and out of the Gaza Strip.
He stressed the need for a “Palestinian national consensus from all political forces” and appealed to all factions to work toward unity.
Fattouh called on the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements to join the Palestine Liberation Organization within the framework of its political program in order to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
He underscored the importance of stopping the war and allowing for the return of displaced Palestinian people to their homeland.
He also called for an international conference to be held within a specific time frame in order to achieve a two-state solution.
He stressed the need for the international community to do everything it can to stop the war and compel the occupation forces to withdraw from the Gaza Strip unconditionally, as well as to stop repeated Israeli aggression in the West Bank.
