Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Am­bas­sador-des­ig­nate of the State of Pales­tine to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Dr Lin­da Sobeh Ali, has ap­pealed to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Gov­ern­ment to con­tin­ue ad­vo­cat­ing for the pro­tec­tion of Pales­tin­ian chil­dren, up­hold in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­i­tar­i­an law and re­sist any move to “nor­malise” Is­rael’s ac­tions in Gaza and the oc­cu­pied Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries.

Speak­ing dur­ing a vir­tu­al press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Ali al­so ques­tioned Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­cent diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment with Is­rael, days af­ter For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers sought to re­as­sure mem­bers of the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty fol­low­ing crit­i­cism over his re­cent meet­ing with Is­rael’s non-res­i­dent am­bas­sador and MASHAV di­rec­tor gen­er­al Ey­nat Shlein.

Asked whether she was con­cerned about T&T strength­en­ing ties with Is­rael, Ali said Pales­tini­ans were “alarmed” by Is­rael’s grow­ing pres­ence in the Caribbean.

“We are con­cerned, and I have faith that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment knows and un­der­stands that it’s not a con­flict. It’s an on­go­ing oc­cu­pa­tion, it’s on­go­ing geno­cide, it’s on­go­ing hu­mil­i­a­tion, it’s on­go­ing land grab, it’s on­go­ing an­nex­a­tion, it’s on­go­ing il­le­gal set­tle­ment,” she said.

Re­spond­ing to a ques­tion about Sobers’ re­cent meet­ing with Is­raeli of­fi­cials, Ali ques­tioned the mo­tives be­hind Is­rael’s out­reach.

“I am just won­der­ing, are the same peo­ple that de­stroyed Gaza com­ing to help in the Caribbean? Are they com­ing to wash the blood off their hands of Pales­tin­ian fam­i­lies and chil­dren by do­ing a project here and there to show that they are hu­mane?” she asked.

Ali said she was not seek­ing to in­ter­fere in T&T’s sov­er­eign for­eign pol­i­cy but want­ed cit­i­zens to re­flect on the is­sue.

“I am an­swer­ing your ques­tion with a ques­tion that will be laid out there for the Trinidad peo­ple to think.”

Ali, who pre­sent­ed her diplo­mat­ic cre­den­tials un­der the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion, said she had al­ready met mem­bers of the Gov­ern­ment, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo and oth­er Cab­i­net min­is­ters.

She ex­pressed con­fi­dence that Trinidad and To­ba­go would main­tain its sup­port for Pales­tine.

She al­so re­vealed that she had en­gaged re­gion­al lead­ers dur­ing the re­cent Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in St Lu­cia, de­scrib­ing Cari­com gov­ern­ments as sup­port­ive of the Pales­tin­ian cause.

De­liv­er­ing a di­rect mes­sage to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Ali ap­pealed to the Prime Min­is­ter “as a moth­er, as a woman to woman, as a diplo­mat to diplo­mat, as a hu­man to hu­man.”

“Con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate for the lib­er­a­tion of Pales­tine, for the cre­ation of a two-state so­lu­tion and for a just cause un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law for all Pales­tini­ans,” she said.

Ali al­so urged T&T to con­tin­ue de­fend­ing in­ter­na­tion­al law and hu­man­i­tar­i­an prin­ci­ples.

“Pales­tine needs help. We need to be res­cued from an up­com­ing geno­cide in the West Bank. I urge you to con­tin­ue to stand with in­ter­na­tion­al jus­tice, in­ter­na­tion­al law, and do not nor­malise the sit­u­a­tion un­til the oc­cu­pa­tion is end­ed.”

Ap­peal­ing for greater in­ter­na­tion­al ac­tion, Ali said she had “full faith” that the T&T Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue to op­pose what she de­scribed as geno­cide.

“I ask you to ad­vo­cate for the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren, for re­spect of in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man­i­tar­i­an law and ac­count­abil­i­ty. I have full faith in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment that they can­not over­look the geno­cide in Pales­tine.”

Her com­ments come amid height­ened scruti­ny over the Gov­ern­ment’s en­gage­ment with Is­raeli of­fi­cials af­ter Sobers de­fend­ed his re­cent cour­tesy meet­ing with Am­bas­sador Shlein, in­sist­ing T&T re­mains com­mit­ted to its long­stand­ing sup­port for a two-state so­lu­tion while main­tain­ing diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with both Is­rael and Pales­tine.