General News of Thursday, 2 May 2002

Source: Accra Mail

Solidarity Campaign for Palestine

Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a support group based in Ghana has appealed to Ghanaians to take "concrete pro-Palestine solidarity action against an unjust world".

Mr. Gyekye Tanoh, a leading member of the group, told reporters at press conference in Accra yesterday, "Israeli military have invaded Palestine and massacred thousands of defenceless Palestine civilians in cold blood".

He said despite the attacks on Palestine, the Israeli Defence Forces have also prevented international aid in terms of health facilities to be sent to the Palestinian victims who suffered during numerous attacks.

He was not happy that upon all the atrocities meted out to the Palestinians including the destruction of school building among other infrastructure and amenities, the United Nations (UN) had not taken any bold stand to call Israel to order.

Neither was he happy with the United States of America for the stand taken to support Israel to fight innocent civilians of Palestine in the name of fighting "terrorism". He wondered why "the US, which is willing to invade Iraq and Afghanistan for sponsoring "terrorism" does not criticise genocide against the Palestinian people."

He accused the government of Ghana for being "disgracefully slow" to tackle the issue. He said his group understand the causes of the Middle East crisis and the scale of catastrophe Palestinians are facing, and therefore "cannot sit silent and watch a whole people murdered in cold blood just to satisfy the west's desire to monopolise control of oil resources".

To address the issue at stake the group would hold rallies, meetings with various groups and organisations including educational institutions to increase public awareness on the Middle East crisis.