
Symposium on “United Nations Special Envoys… Appointment, Tasks and Effectiveness of their Roles”
May 9, 2023
Statement by the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs on the occasion of “Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba”
May 15, 2023On May 10, 2023, ECFA hosted a delegation from the sisterly State of Palestine to introduce the International Academic Campaign Against Israeli Occupation and Apartheid “For Palestine,” which seeks to inform the international community of the violations committed by the Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and to support the Palestinian statement at the United Nations in September 2023. The delegation consisted of: Prof. Dr. Alaa Hamouda, Professor of Political Science and Campaign Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Ramzi Odeh, Secretary-General of the Campaign, Dr. Qasim Awad, Director General of the Human Rights and Civil Society Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Dr. Anis Suwaidan, Director General of External Relations at the PLO, and Dr. Samia Abu Hussein from the Human Rights Department in the Gaza Strip. The delegation was received by the Ambassadors: Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, Salah Halima, Youssef Al-Sharqawi, Atef Sayed Al-Ahl, Maged Refaat, and Dr. Sadeq Abdel-Aal.
The delegation indicated that the “For Palestine” campaign was launched following the speech of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in which he addressed the crimes of the Occupation against the Palestinian people, double international standards, and a number of states that abstained from voting in favor of the Palestinian cause. The campaign aims to create a global movement, mainly through cooperation with non-governmental civil society organizations, which in turn put pressure on their governments and collect signatures to support the Palestinian President’s speech at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, scheduled to be held in September 2023, and to demand that it adopt the call of the free world, issue its resolutions to halt the repeated Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people, and declare an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, to be a free, independent state and a full member of the United Nations. Various Palestinian institutions are participating in the campaign, from the Palestine Liberation Organization’s departments and factions, the National Council, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Prime Minister’s Office, and others.
The campaign’s speech won the support of the Arab Parliament, which adopted the campaign on May 4, 2023. The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States also expressed on May 10 its appreciation for the campaign’s efforts, affirming its support for it to achieve its goals, and working to provide legal, political and media support, and translating the international will to implement the two-state solution by implementing the international law and relevant resolutions to put an end to the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Likewise, the “Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization” decided to adopt the campaign, to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people against the continuing Israeli aggression, in all international platforms and organizations. In turn, the members of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs expressed their adoption of the campaign’s speech and their full support for our Palestinian brothers, stressing the centrality of the Palestinian cause and its priority for the Arab and Islamic worlds, and affirming Egypt’s steadfast stance regarding the Palestinian cause, and its constant striving to reach a just and comprehensive solution that guarantees the rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of its independent state in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.