Latin America attends 5th conference of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds

Last Friday, 26 April, some 600 delegates from 75 countries met in Istanbul, Turkey, for the 5th annual conference of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds, with emphasis on the Israeli war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Titled “Freedom and Independence for Palestine”, the forum received 30 representatives from 12 Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attended the opening session.

The conference may last three days, with solidarity activities with the Palestinian people. Some of the efforts include the Jerusalem Season Initiative, including partner figures and associations contributing to the humanitarian work in the occupied territories.

Hamid bin Abdullah al-Ahmar, president of the League, opened the assembly by saying the Israeli genocide in Gaza made a joke of the world order, forcing the universal values to which Western countries pay lip service to sink into the Palestinian tragedy.

Al-Ahmar stressed the League’s standing as a prominent platform in defense of Palestinian rights and the symbolism of Jerusalem in the fight for justice. According to al-Ahmar, the forum represents the largest parliamentary dialogue globally at the current juncture.

“Since the launch of the League nine years ago, free parliamentarians from the Islamic world, Asia, and Africa have joined it, with a dense presence in Latin America and a promising extension in Europe,” noted al-Ahmar. “We became a platform for them, with their various affiliations, united by the common human instinct that supports justice and rejects the injustice and tyranny of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Al-Ahmed also warned against the Israeli efforts to finalize its ethnic cleansing by targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), intending to displace the Indigenous people and hinder their right of return.

Al-Ahmar urged a global alliance to revive humanitarian principles and commended the South African efforts to hold Israel accountable in the International Court of Justice (CIJ) in the Hague, resulting in the genocide case against the occupation.

Read: A Palestinian doctor who lost 7 from his family in Gaza speaks at Brazil´s Parliament

Erdogan pointed out that the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds has: “Become the voice and soul of the Palestinian issue at the global level thanks to its activities and work in all fields.”

“No one can expect us to remain silent regarding the genocide against our Palestinian brothers who have been resisting alone for 203 days,” added the president.

Ismail al-Ashqar, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, asked the delegates for urgent actions “to end the genocidal war waged on Gaza,” and noted the Israeli supremacist plans to eradicate the identity of ancient Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa.

Ahmed al-Kharshi, deputy speaker of the Algerian National Assembly, highlighted the importance of Palestinian representation in global forums. “The war of extermination on Gaza exposed the frailty of the international community and its claims in defense of humanity.”

Fawzi al-Nuwairi, deputy speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, greeted South Africa and called for “breaking off the relationship with Israel and issuing laws to face the normalization and place sanctions on the occupation.”

Delegates from Morrocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan were also present.

Julia Perie, former congresswoman of Argentina and deputy of Mercosur, affirmed: “Some 140 countries recognize Palestine. However, the Palestinian people seem to be alone in the face of the Israeli killing machine. We must act to end the genocide and unite our voices and rankings in support of the Palestinian rights.”

Also attending were Andronico Rodriguez and Israel Huaytari Martínez, speakers of the Senate and House of Representatives of Bolivia. The South American country was the first to sever ties with Israel due to its atrocities in Gaza.

Engels Martin Pineda García, delegate from Honduras and deputy speaker of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), Francisco Anibal Perie, former undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights of Argentina, and Guillermo Barreto, former Minister of Environment of Venezuela, were also present.

The Latin Palestinian Forum (LPF) organized the Latin American delegation to Istanbul, including the presence of its president, Mohamad El-Kadri, from Brazil.

Israel assaults the Gaza Strip for six months, killing 34,262 Palestinians, injuring a further 77,229, and displacing two million people. Among the deaths, some 14,000 are children.

The Israeli aggression caused several geopolitical fissures, especially between the United States and most of Europe, allied to the occupation regime, and the so-called Global South, broadly supportive of Palestine.

In Latin America, the presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), and Gabriel Boric (Chile) acknowledged the Israeli actions as genocide. The new far-right Argentine president, Javier Milei, however, ran counter by keeping himself aligned with the apartheid.

Yet, activists pressure the local supportive governments to go further and break all economic and diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Israeli actions are collective punishment, war crime, and genocide.