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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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Features |  |
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Man behind thirty years of Palestinian Solidarity Ever since the tragic 9/11 events in America, daily killings of Palestinians by Israelis almost go unnoticed both by the media and governments. Europe led by UK which planted the Zionist Jewish entity in the heart of the Arab World, and deprived the Palestinians their homes and lands, confines its response only to urging Israel to restrain when the number killed exceeds what they consider as tolerable limits. In America President George Bush receives mass murderer elected Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "man of peace" whose crimes against Palestinians continue with the support of Washington and the American tax payer's money. The Arab regimes, for decades specialized in the art of issuing statements condemning Israeli atrocities on Palestinians, too have abandoned the Palestinians and were busy with their under the table deals with both Washington and Israel. The pathetic state of affairs of Palestine is such that even some Palestinians sell their own cause as shown in recent reports that cement given by Egyptian contractors at concession rates to rebuild Palestinian houses demolished by Ariel Sharon were sold secretly at exorbitant prices to Israel to help build the wall of shame in West Bank. Despite being betrayed by friends and foes alike the Palestinians, whose struggle for their land and freedom won the admiration of people with conscious all over the world, they can be content that there are still people around the world who still stand behind them. One among them is, not an Arab or Muslim, but a native Sri Lankan T. Jayasinghe who lives at Talawathugoda. His direct and deep involvement began in 1974 when he together with handful of others formed the Sri Lankan Committee for Solidarity with Palestine to espouse the Palestinian cause to people here. He brought in the then up and coming young southern politician Mahinda Rajapakse who now rose to become the Island's Prime Minister, as the President of the Solidarity Committee. Up to date Mr. Rajapakse remains the President of this Committee. On the eve of the Non Aligned Summit Conference in Colombo the Committee collected 100 signatures from leading political, religious and intellectual figures from all four communities and submitted a memorandum urging the Non Aligned Summit to pass a resolution to expel Zionist entity from United Nations which created this entity which, as predicted then, had now destabilized the entire Middle East and brought untold misery to the people there. It is worthy to note that as predicted then in that memorandum many in the West now feel Israel as the only source of tension and unrest in the world. T. Jayasinghe also complained to the Mossad Commission, appointed to investigate into the involvement of Israel in the internal affairs of the country, how three Israelis claiming to be agricultural experts had trained armed Tamil militants in the jungles of Amparai. In view of his life long contributions to Palestinian cause the Al Najah University in Palestine has awarded him an honourary doctorate. Since he was unable to travel to Palestine under the existing political climate the university had dispatched all relevant documents to the Palestinian Embassy in Colombo granting him the doctorate. |
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