NEW YORK: The president of Comoros accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during his address to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, and rejected claims that supporting a two-state solution is a “gift to Hamas.”
Azali Assoumani said the UN cannot achieve its ambitious Sustainable Development Goals if it cannot prevent genocide from taking place in Gaza or violence in other regions.
“With five years to go before the (SDG) deadline, it’s notable that the world isn’t more peaceful or more equitable. On the contrary, inequalities have increased, conflicts have multiplied, and humanity is moving further and further away from the vision that once drove us,” he added.
“The Palestinian tragedy is perhaps the most shocking demonstration of this. For more than 70 years now, and today even more so than before, the Palestinian people have been suffering the pillaging of their ancestral lands, suffering exile, torture and humiliation. Their recent history is simply a succession of pages written in blood, indifference and scorn.”
Assoumani denounced as “barbaric” the Hamas attack on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, but “the disproportionate response that has been unleashed in Gaza since then is indeed a genocide.
“Eighty percent of the victims are children, older persons or the ill. They’ve been killed by shelling which doesn’t spare hospitals, aid distribution centers, schools, UN staff or journalists.”
He added: “The crimes perpetrated against Palestine stem from an untenable contradiction. Indeed, how can a government elected by a people who are victim of the Holocaust now commit a genocide before the very eyes of the entire world?”
He continued: “When we look at the tragedy of the Holocaust, Arab, African and Muslim countries have never been on the side of the perpetrators of genocide.
“On the contrary, our forefathers and our ancestors were risking their lives. They fought alongside the Allies to defend the Jewish people and host them, welcomed them, welcomed the survivors into their country.”
He said the two-state solution “with East Jerusalem as the capital of a State of Palestine” is “the only solution for peace and security for Israel and for the entire … Middle East.”
He urged the UNGA “to put the future of a Palestinian state once and for all on our common agenda. It’s our moral responsibility to act, because with every day that goes by without action being taken, thousands of innocent people, women and children die.”
