Vice President urges support for Palestine

Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - Vice President John Mahama on Wednesday made a passionate appeal to the parties in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict to work towards reaching an amicable solution rather than initiating unilateral actions that will further exacerbate the already volatile situation.

"No amount of force of arms can create any (peaceful) solution," said the Vice President as he deplored continuous incidents of brutality against women and children in the occupied territories of Palestine. Launching a photo-exhibition at the Freedom Centre, which highlights the Palestinian predicament, the Vice President emphasized the Palestinian peoples' right to self-determination as enshrined in the various United Nations declarations on the issue, and asked for this right to be respected.

This right, he explained, should neither be based on colour nor creed, but offered without pre-conditions to the Palestinians. "The conflict is not a battle between Christians and Muslims; it is a question of universal human rights."

Organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Movement of Ghana, the exhibition offers the public a grisly representation of innocent Palestinians caught up in that country's fray with the Israeli army and the consequences thereof.

The aim of the one-week exhibition is to evoke a sense of humanity in the Ghanaian populace in support of moves to implement a two-state solution in resolving a conflict which has already claimed thousands of lives, especially on the Palestinian side.

Vice President Mahama said both parties should work towards a thawing in their relationship and to implement peace-building measures that had been agreed by the international community.

He said the human cost of the conflict was awesome, requiring concerted efforts to resolve the problem so as to end the spectre of violence which had claimed innocent lives endlessly.

The Vice President said failure to do this would give meaning to a perception that the world had two sets of justice. "What is the difference in the value of life between a Palestine and a Kosovar?" the Vice President pondered, urging the international community to work for justice for all regardless of their beliefs. Vice President Mahama commended Mr Kwesi Pratt Junior, a journalist and human rights campaigner, for his support for the underprivileged and for using the Freedom Centre as a focal point to seek redress for human rights infractions irrespective of where they occurred.

Mr Pratt said the exhibition was a modest effort to let Ghanaians have a much deeper appreciation of the Palestinian quest for nationhood.