Together - Ambassador Marwan Tubasi, who previously served for eight years as the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Greece, said in a statement to our agency: Following several meetings and consultations that took place in the Greek capital, Athens, a group of progressive political and social activists, Palestinians and Greeks, announced through a press release published yesterday the establishment of a joint action forum called the “Progressive Forum for Greek-Palestinian Solidarity,” with the aim of working Joint effort to advance the relations of friendship and solidarity between the Greek and Palestinian peoples, and to push the governments of the European Union countries, including Greece, to take clear positions that support the just struggle of the Palestinian people and recognize their independent state in accordance with the recommendations of the Greek Parliament that were taken unanimously by its members in December 2015 and a number of other European parliaments between the years of 2014. And 2016, as well as calling on the governments of European Union countries to move away from the dominance of foreign policy determinants America is taking the European people to more economic and social crises through its proxy war that it created in central-eastern Europe and its ongoing crimes against many peoples of the world. We also work jointly to promote a progressive democratic vision and concepts based on the ideals and principles of human rights, freedom, justice, equality, and the right to self-determination for all peoples, especially the Palestinian people, who are still deprived of exercising their historical political rights since the crimes of ethnic cleansing and the beginning of their forced displacement from their homeland in 1948 at the hands of the movement. Zionism and the colonial powers allied with it and its sponsors in the West to establish the settlement project at the expense of the rights, capabilities and existence of the indigenous Palestinian people on their land.

The founders of the forum, Costas Aisikos, the former Greek Deputy Minister of Defense, and Marwan Emil Tubasi, the former ambassador of the State of Palestine to Greece, said that the forum group will work to boycott, isolate and expose the occupation and settlement regime and the crime of the apartheid regime imposed by the Israeli colonial colonial occupation on the Palestinian people in their historical land, as well as And defending human rights, dignity, and progressive democratic human values in accordance with the principles of international law and international humanitarian law that should govern the positions of states and their relations with their peoples and with other states in support of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, in order to strengthen the principles of international peace and security in regions of the world, specifically in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Mediterranean and in all emerging hotbeds of tension in the world, through the membership of this forum, which will include a number of political activists and progressive opinion-makers from the Palestinian and Greek peoples, whose names will be announced in an upcoming statement.In later stages, this forum will be expanded to include progressive European and Arab political figures.

The statement issued by the founders stated that the aim of this forum is to support the national and social struggle against all forms of colonialism, racism, neo-Nazism and persecution against the Palestinian people and their historical leadership represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and against any other people in this world who wage their struggle through forms of resistance and struggle. The different types of peoples legitimized by international conventions for any people subject to the crime of occupation, racial persecution, exploitation, and the policies of the European far-right and emerging fascist groups.

The statement indicated that the Progressive Forum for Solidarity between the Greek and Palestinian Peoples confirms its rejection of the policies of the United States and NATO that are leading the world to a reality of permanent wars and disasters and to a dark future within the framework of the unipolar international system and its brutal right-wing neoliberal policies, which are now collapsing in the face of the accelerating course of events towards... A multipolar system that must be more just in serving peoples’ issues and progress.

The forum also expressed in its statement its absolute opposition and condemnation of the policies of the rogue state of Israel, its crimes, its colonial settlement expansion, its inhuman behavior, and its continued crimes against the Palestinian people and other peoples of the region, with the support of the American administration and the hypocritical and guilty silence of the European Union, which targets the history, progress, prosperity, dignity and aspirations of the Greek people as well.

Both Kostas Issijous and Marwan Tubasi affirmed that the forum rejects the claim of the Israeli occupying state regarding the “democracy of its regime” and the “right to defend itself,” as there is no democracy in light of the practice of occupation and the existence of an expansionist ethnocratic regime based on religious claims and an alleged national identity, and that such The claim equates the victim with the executioner, as what Israel is doing is organized terrorism aimed at defending the sustainability of its settlement occupation, its expansion, and its brutal oppression against the Palestinian people who are struggling to remain on their land and enjoy their full rights in accordance with what the United Nations and international laws have approved for them, which is summed up by ending The colonial occupation and the apartheid regime, and achieving freedom and national independence in an independent and democratic state with sovereignty over all the Palestinian territories occupied on June 4, 1967, including its capital, East Jerusalem, as part of its historic homeland, and the return of refugees in accordance with United Nations Resolution No. 194,And the release of Palestinian political prisoners from the occupation prisons who suffer the worst types of oppression at the hands of the executioner, as well as the rights of full national and social equality to the remaining members of the Palestinian people who cling to their homeland and are citizens of the State of Israel, and the abolition of the racist Jewish nation-state law and other relevant laws and decisions of the governments of Israel that Its racism, Jewish superiority, and its decline towards Zionist religious fascism are firmly established.

Tubasi and Asikhous also expressed the forum’s position on the necessity of any subsequent negotiations on a possible political path being based under international sponsorship, away from the path of security and economic solutions only, and away from the role of the biased American monopoly, which served only to perpetuate the occupation, prevent Israel from being held accountable and punished in international forums and courts over the past decades, and even give international cover. To the ugliness of the occupation, so that it will be possible to reach a lasting and comprehensive peace when there is a clear partner for peace that understands the necessity of ending the occupation, and guarantees freedom, equality, justice and achieving stability for all the peoples of the region by ending the Israeli colonial occupation and the apartheid system first in accordance with international guarantees, mechanisms and a clear timetable

Source: Maan News Agency