The UN Secretary General’s statements led to criticism from Israel. As chairman of the Portugal-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, do you agree with António Guterres?
I don’t speak for the group. The group has members from different parties who only speak with one voice if they understand. Under no other circumstances will I be able to speak on behalf of the various parties who, as we know, have positions on this issue with different nuances. Therefore, I speak only for myself on this issue, because I know, of course, that the delegates of this group are very sensitive to the discussion on the question of Palestine and follow very closely everything that is happening in Palestine. Not only, of course, the terrible massacres of the 7th, but the entire political context that has marked that area for decades, namely the occupation by Israel.
What do you say on a personal level about Guterres’ statements?
I think we should support each other. António Guterres tries to have a voice that recognizes reality. We all understand that you naturally condemn Hamas’s unjustified attacks. Therefore, there is no explanation for how Israel launched a diplomatic attack on him. Guterres realized, and in my opinion and that of Bloco de Esquerda he understood well, that the political context of that region is a complex one, which was not born on October 7. And if the international community, in addition to mourning and condemning, also wants to think about peace, it must of course take this context into account and find political solutions to the situation. A situation that includes an undeniable historical fact, recognized by the United Nations, namely the violent occupation of Palestine by Israel, including various crimes against humanity and a state of apartheid. What Guterres did was to recognize this reality and say that in order to think about a political solution it is necessary to think that the Palestinians have lost hope for a political solution to their colonial situation and for the creation of a Palestinian state. And it is necessary to restore Palestinians’ hope for a peaceful political solution.
BE presented a proposed resolution for the Portuguese government to recognize the State of Palestine. Is it viable?
It takes courage to take political initiative and concrete action at this time. Supporting Guterres in his efforts for peace, in the complexity of the region, means that we do not enter into this discussion with mere external observers of barbarism. As if we were watching a movie and couldn’t intervene. It was due to the lack of intervention from the international community as we watched the expansion of illegal settlements and the mass displacement of the Palestinian people that this hope was exhausted. What we propose is that the Portuguese State, as is its prerogative and the prerogative of its sovereignty, recognize the State of Palestine, as 138 States of the United Nations have already done. It is a signal to the Palestinian people that the solution does not lie in terror, but in the hope of political negotiations and the fulfilled promise of the international community. And that a political solution is possible in the outcome of this conflict. Because otherwise, if there is no horizon of hope, we will consider the outcome of this conflict as the genocide of the Palestinian people. And that does not take away the horror of October 7.
Source: DN
