Between Grant and Denial, One Letter and Great Malice

Author: Jamal Al-Shati

For the second consecutive year, the U.S. administration prevents the president and the Palestinian delegation from participating in the United Nations meetings in New York, while at the same time allowing war criminal "Benjamin Netanyahu" to participate. The scene has become clearer and does not require study, analysis, or scrutiny; rather, it needs to draw lessons and take national responsibility in adopting the most appropriate national position to face the challenges.

The American decision to prevent representatives of the State of Palestine from reaching the United Nations headquarters is no longer just a political issue or an administrative visa matter, but a true test of what remains of the host state's respect for the UN organization. The confrontation has become evident between the will of the international community and the policy of the U.S. administration, which insists, with all arrogance, on standing by and siding with the criminal Israeli occupation. This indicates and confirms day after day that the U.S. administration has been, and still is, and will remain the incubator and sponsor of global terrorism. Otherwise, what does it mean to allow a war criminal like "Netanyahu," who is wanted by the international community, to participate, while preventing the participation of the president of a state recognized by the majority of those countries and nations in this UN meeting?

The question is how can the Trump administration prevent the president and the Palestinian delegation from participating in the meetings while at the same time negotiating with a political movement that it still classifies as terrorism in front of the world? Unless there is something behind the scenes! What is happening did not come from nowhere but is the result of a long history of multifaceted relationships and understandings between the Americans, Netanyahu, and Hamas. Netanyahu had previously stated publicly in his speech at the United Nations: "Terrorism is Abbas, not Hamas." He also reiterated what the terrorist Smotrich, the finance minister of the occupation, said: "Hamas is an asset, and the Palestinian Authority is a loss for Israel."

When the U.S. administration granted all countries entry visas to its territory, including Iran, and prevented the Palestinian delegation from directly participating in the United Nations General Assembly for the second consecutive year, the response to this unjust American decision came directly from the same General Assembly of the United Nations, which voted in favor of Palestine with the participation of the president through a recorded message. This confirms, first and foremost, that the American goal is the head of the Palestinian cause and its political title to please Israel. They managed with this decision to prevent the president and the Palestinian delegation from reaching New York, but they failed to block the voice of Palestine from reaching the United Nations podium.

The vote, which took place with a majority of (152) countries against three and four abstentions, rejecting the United Nations General Assembly's decision to prevent the president and the Palestinian delegation from attending and participating in the United Nations, indicates the strength and presence of the Palestinian national cause in the conscience of nations that believe in freedom and love peace. Despite the significance of the large number in the vote, the most important aspect of this vote is the international affirmation and insistence on the political presence of Palestine with this overwhelming majority and allowing the voice of Palestine to be conveyed by all means. The biased American decision, subject to hostile political calculations, was not just a passing stance that raises political controversy and issues, but also raises moral and legal dilemmas and serious interactions between the arrogance of the host country and the status of the international organization.

They prevented the Palestinian delegation from direct attendance alongside the participating countries, but they will not be able to prevent the Palestinian voice from reaching the entire world from the podium of the General Assembly. This leads us to the necessity of including the president's recorded speech with the following: * Affirming our people's right to self-determination and embodying the sovereignty of their state on their land according to international legitimacy decisions, and not according to American-Israeli measurements.

* Affirming our people's right to pursue war criminals and the genocide in Gaza in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, and to stop the ongoing genocide against our people.

* Urging the participating countries in the UN meeting to rally support to gain further recognition of the State of Palestine.

* A call for participating countries and the international community to stand by their responsibilities in lifting the unjust siege on our people and their Palestinian authority, and to take decisions and measures necessary to put an end to the settlement frenzy in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

* Emphasizing that Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine, and calling on the world and the international community to compel the occupation to fully withdraw from its lands to rebuild it with international support, and that the Palestinian National Authority is ready to assume its responsibilities in Gaza in terms of governance, weapons, and security.

When the president publicly stood in international forums rejecting and preventing the description of "Hamas" as terrorism, it was imperative for Hamas to take a bold decision and step to publicly hand over the political reins to the Palestinian president, in order to thwart the opportunity for all the haters and those waiting to undermine our national cause. Today, the ball is still in Hamas's court to retreat and prioritize the public interest over private interests to ensure the unity of the national position, or to choose to continue in its delusion with the same approach and behavior, and thus burn all bridges in its insistence on actually harmonizing within the alliance against the people and the cause, making itself the open black gate to undermine the Palestinian dream and destroy the Palestinian national cause.

The American administration has overlooked that the more it arrogantly tries to silence the Palestinian voice from the world, the more the presence of Palestine and its global voice expands. Palestine is present and derives its strength from its people and the justice of its sacred cause. The Palestinian cause is not linked to a visa from the American administration, which is fundamentally biased towards the crimes of the occupation, but it is the cause of a people aspiring for freedom, independence, and statehood. Palestine is stronger and more enduring than a Washington visa; the people remain, and the occupation will vanish.