Out of a press conference hosted by the Palestinian Embassy in Chile, Chilean parliamentarians and politicians of all backgrounds have united to request the recall of the Chilean Ambassador from Tel Aviv as a reaction to the Occupationâs latest war crimes.
The press conference held on Friday, 30th of June in Santiago was attended by Palestinian Ambassador, Dr. Mai Al -Kailah, who received support in solidarity from:
– Senator Alejandro Navarro, head of the Socialist senators in the Chilean Congress and member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party of Chile;
– MP Francisco Chahuán, who is also Vice-president of the right wing party Renovación Nacional (RN);
– Gustavo Hasbun, the Mayor of Estación Central (a Municipality in Santiago City) and member of the rightist party Unión Democrática Independiente (UDI);
– Hugo Gutierrez, member of the Council of Estación Central, well-known human rights lawyer and member of the Political Commission of the Chilean Communist Party; and
– Mladen Yopo, Head of the International Relations department of the governing Partido por la Democracia (PPD).
All present strongly condemned the latest Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
After an official introduction by the Palestinian Ambassador, Alejandro Navarro said that he does not believe âthe excuses that Israel is expressing for the current attack in Gaza.â He highlighted the extreme disproportion between the disaster created by the Occupation on civilian life throughout the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the capture of one soldier. He thus asked the Chilean government to recall its ambassador in Tel Aviv until the aggression of the Occupation stops.
According to Navarro, “Latin America must react as one single voice against what is going on in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
He further announced in a press conference that he will be organizing in cooperation with MP Francisco Chahuán a Chilean Observer Committee Delegation to act as international observers in Palestine to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, and who will travel to Palestine in the near future.
Renowned Chilean human rights lawyer and member of the Chilean communist party, Hugo Gutierrez, condemned Israel as a “terrorist state”, and demanded the United Nations “implement international law to stop the massacres and to achieve Palestinian sovereignty over their land”. As an expert of International Humanitarian Law, Gutierrez said that the policies of the Occupation “put at risk the international law and stability all over the world”.
Chilean mayor and member of the rightist UDI party, Gustavo Hasbun, also asked the government to recall the Chilean ambassador from Tel Aviv and defined the actions of the Occupation as “State of Terrorism”.
Chilean MP Francisco Chahuán made an open statement of solidarity with his Palestinian colleagues that have been kidnapped by the Occupation Forces, asking the Chilean government to act in a coherent way according with its principles of respect of international law.
The Chilean government itself has not been able to express more than a call to end the aggressions in the Gaza Strip, and to ensure safety for the civilian population in the Occupied Territories, without directly condemning the Occupation for its aggressions. Also, in the last few days, it seems likely that the Chilean government will start negotiations with the Zionist regime to sign a separate FTA.
However, the bold statements of many prominent figures in Chile are an important step forward in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
A similar call has been given out by the Chilean civil society in 2002 and signatures were collected to support it. After two years the call is out in the public again and is now joined with Latin American civil society mobilization against the FTA the MERCOSUR intends to sign with the Occupation.