The Palestine Ambassador to Kenya Hazem Shabat has called on Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied territories, a move which will foster peaceful coexistence.
Mr. Shabbat disclosed that the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 of (2016) condemned Israeli settlement activity and calls for Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied territories which the resolution states is a violation of international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution.
“The resolution condemned all measures aimed at altering the demographic compositions,” Mr Shabat emphasized.
Mr Shabbat was speaking at the University of Nairobi when the Department of Diplomacy and International Studies hosted him for a lecture on the Geopolitics of Middle East: Palestine, Israel Conflict and Prospects.
The Palestine Ambassador to Kenya said that the conflict can be resolved by observing equality and ensuring that the citizens of Palestine receive human rights equally as other people around the globe and also enforce the same laws.
Mr. Shabat said that the conflict between Palestine and Israel began 100 years ago.
Mr. Shabat disclosed that the main root of the conflict between Palestine and Israel can be traced back to the competing claims of both Palestinians and Jews to the same land.
“In the late 1800, a movement known as Zionism began to take shape, which sought to establish a Jewish Homeland in Palestine, which was then the Ottoman Empire,” revealed Mr Shabat adding that as more Jews emmigrated to the region tensions rose between them and the Arab population who also had historical and cultural ties to the land.
In addition, Mr. Shabbat pointed out that Jerusalem was to be internationalised and run by the United Nations and hence no party had the right to claim Jerusalem.
By Emma Jolly Wambui and Lucy Gitei
