Hakeem wants Sri Lanka to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel
By Easwaran Rutnam
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem has called on the Sri Lanka Government to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel for committing “genocide” in Palestine.
He told Parliament the Government must take a bold stand on the issue like certain other countries.
The MP said that Sri Lanka must call for action on Israel in the international criminal court.
Hakeem also accused the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration of becoming virtual “slaves” to the US.
The opposition MP accused the Biden administration in the US of giving Israel bombs to destroy the entire Gaza strip.
State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya responded expressing regret over the attitude of the MP.
He said that while the MP may want to cut ties with Israel, Sri Lanka will do what is best for the country.
According to the United Nations, almost 450,000 Palestinians have fled from Rafah over the past week as Israeli tanks reportedly push deeper into the southern Gaza city.
“People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear,” warned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
Israel’s military says it is continuing “operations against terror targets” in the east of the city, where more than a million people had been sheltering.
New Israeli operations in northern Gaza have displaced another 100,000 people.
The military ordered civilians to evacuate eastern Rafah and Jabalia for their own safety before starting the assaults, but the total of those displaced in recent days is equivalent to almost a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage.
More than 35,170 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. (Colombo Gazette)
