Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1221489
But the way it works in prac- tice is that Palestinian refugees – including some of my col- leagues, here in the embassy – have honorary passports, or travel documents, that allow them to travel anywhere in the world… except Palestine, their own home. And this is a great pity… In your article, you also called on the 'responsible actors to take serious and effective measures' to ensure that the rights of Palestinians are re- spected. What measures do you expect the EU and its individual member states – including Mal- ta – to take? We have always relied on the EU as being an important player in the Palestinian-Israe- li conflict; because we believe that, in a sense, we are also part of the EU. We are very close to Europeans, both histori- cally and geographically. We have always had a lot of sup- port from European countries, even from before the EU was formed. Malta, for instance, was one of the first countries to recognise the Palestinian state; as was Cyprus, and more recently Sweden, and many others. Unfortunately, however, Eu- rope tends to support us more financially than politically. The EU has given us a lot of finan- cial support over the years… but we do only need food and other necessities. We also need dignity. This is our problem. Europe has to understand that it needs to exert more pressure on Israel. Not just Europe, of course… also Russia, China, and all the other major players in the world. They all need to step up the pressure. Because as long as the USA continues to support Israel, with no other country standing up to them… things will not change. And to be honest, we are more scared now, because the rest of the world is concerned with fighting the Coronavirus. This includes Israel and Pales- tine, too. For at the end of the day, we are all one entity when it comes to combating this dis- ease. If Israel has the virus on their side of the border, or we have it on ours… we still have to work together; we still have to communicate, in order not to spread it. And we are working together on this. There are media re- ports that Israel is providing us with medical supplies, and oth- er forms of assistance… which is great. But even now, Israel still con- tinues with its annexation of Palestinian land… and even shooting Palestinian people. Just yesterday, they shot a Pal- estinian citizen in the city of Nablus. Can you imagine? At a time when we should all be focusing on the fight against Coronavirus… they still are continuing with the conflict on the ground. What we are saying, on the other hand is that we should be putting aside the conflict until we find a solution to the Coronavirus threat. But this is another problem we are facing now; we have no one to talk to about it… Do you mean in the sense that Israel currently has no demo- cratically legitimate govern- ment? They don't really have a gov- ernment at all. For the past two years, Israel has not been able to select a new prime minis- ter: with no party obtaining a majority in the last three elec- tions. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu – despite not be- ing elected prime minister for the past year and a half - is still working as charge d'affairs in the prime minister's office, un- til further notice. And it seems that he's enjoying it, too. He is still in power; he's still annex- ing more land, building more settlements… and nobody is stopping him. Earlier you quoted Trump as saying that he likes to push a deal through to the end. Realis- tically speaking, what are your hopes that he will not succeed, in this case? Our only hope, now, is that other countries apply enough pressure to stop this deal. As Palestinians, there is not that much we can actually do our- selves. We can only defend our lands, and our lives. And physically, that is what we've been doing. Palestinians have been standing in front of bull- dozers… and some have been killed for doing it. It happened in Gaza just last week: a teen- ager stood in the path of a bull- dozer… and it kept advancing, right over him. But we can't do much else, other than try wo defend our lands with our bodies. We have to rely on others - the EU, the international community, and especially the rest of the Ar- ab world – to try and resist Trump's deal, and to obtain what is ultimately our histori- cal right, as recognised by UN resolutions: a Palestinian state. The problem, however, is that Trump is very serious about imposing his plan on us. He is very literally trying to sell it to us: offering us 50 billion dollars if we accept it. But it will never happen; be- cause for us, Palestine is not for sale. PHOTO BY JAMES BIANCHI 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 MARCH 2020 INTERVIEW We can't do much else, other than try wo defend our lands with our bodies. We have to rely on others - the EU, the international community, and especially the rest of the Arab world – to try and resist Trump's deal