On Friday, May 12, the European League of Parliamentarians for Al-Qods (Jerusalem) and Palestine organized a parliamentary seminar entitled "Peace for Palestine, a new Euro-Mediterranean policy" in Rome, Italy.

The seminar, which was held at the Italian Foreign Press Association in Rome, was attended by the president of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Qods and Palestine, Hamid bin Abdullah al-Ahmar, the president of the European league and former deputy in the Italian parliament, Michele Piras, the director general of the league, Dr. Mohammad Makram Balawi, in addition to members of the Italian and European Parliament, European and Palestinian cultural and Community Trade Union figures.

The president of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Qods and Palestine, Hamid bin Abdullah al-Ahmar, said during his speech at the seminar that the situation in the occupied city of Jerusalem and Palestine has been going from bad to worse in recent months due to the policies and plans of the Israeli occupation government, which is described as the most extreme government in the history of "Israel".

He added that the occupation government ignores international resolutions because of the Great Western support for it, noting that "European leaders tend to praise Israel often for no apparent reason, while they tend to distance themselves from the tragedy that befell the Palestinians and ignore their suffering."

He pointed out that the league is active in Asia, Africa and Latin America and seeks to work more on the European continent, which requires the support of European parliamentarians advocating for the rights of the Palestinian people and international justice, pointing out that parliamentarians for Al-Qods and Palestine launched a plan to build a strong and effective European network of parliamentarians to support the Palestinian cause and develop awareness movements in all European parliaments about the occupation's attacks on the Palestinian people and violation of international law and UN resolutions in the Palestinian Territories.

As for the president of the European League and former deputy in the Italian parliament, Hon. Michele Piras, stressed that the misleading Israeli propaganda and media campaigns supporting the occupation penetrated European societies and reached the highest democratic institutions in European countries.

He pointed out that the league of Europe is working to build a European parliamentary network supporting the rights of the Palestinian people and holds meetings to convey the reality of the occupation attacks in the Occupied Palestinian territories, continuing, "we are proud to say that we are strongly opposed to racism and there is no form of racism can negatively contaminate the political activity that we have set."

In turn, the director general of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Qods and Palestine, Dr. Mohammad Makram Balawi, stressed on the need for practical action to support the Palestinian cause and confront the false occupation propaganda and falsification of facts in Europe, explaining, "Now you are not allowed to express your point of view on the aggressions of the occupation and if you criticize Israel, you are classified as an anti-Semite and a terrorist."

"If we do not act and take practical steps to confront the aggressions of the occupation and try to silence the voices demanding justice for the Palestinian people, there is no sense for all these rhetoric, emotions and feelings, because this world believes only in actions", he said.

He reiterated that justice based on giving the Palestinian people their rights, implementing international resolutions and stopping Israeli violations contrary to international law and Human Rights is the fundamental factor for establishing peace and stability in the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin.

For his part, former MP in the Italian parliament, Hon. Davide Tripiedi, said that " while we are here trying to establish peace in Palestine, Israel continues to kill civilians and children in Gaza, calling for support for the rights of the Palestinian people and pressure on the Israeli occupation and the countries of the world to implement UN and international resolutions .

"Israel violates international law and deprives the Palestinian people of their inalienable right to self-determination, which has been confirmed by numerous international resolutions," he said, "noting that the Israeli occupation government sets laws and practices measures that strengthen and support the apartheid regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories."

He stressed the need to have the courage to put "Israel" at the same level as any country occupying sovereign countries, in addition to putting the Palestinian issue on the Italian political agenda, pointing to the need to create a network to support parliamentarians who support the Palestinian cause and confront Israeli propaganda on the European continent.

In turn, the italian MP Stefania Ascari expressed the importance of the palestinian issue, saying that "Today we speak about the importance of Palestine and the Palestinian people because they are the most forgotten people on Earth"

She also announced that "from next week, for the first time in this legislature, the Italy-Palestine intergroup will be active, a cross-party intergroup in which many parliamentary colleagues from different political forces have already joined."

As for the senator in the Italian parliament, Tino Magni, explained that all the parliaments supporting the Palestinian cause are under "bombardment and a war of letters and pressure" to stop talking about the violations of the occupation in Palestine, adding, "it is difficult to talk about Palestine, and there is always an attempt to prevent any activity supporting the Palestinian cause.

Magni pointed to the need to "raise awareness of what is happening in the Palestinian territories and the ongoing aggression that results in unacceptable injustice and the media need to show the atrocities that are happening, especially what happened recently in Gaza, and it is unacceptable that children, women and innocent people are being killed in silence".

For the European MP Sabrina Pignedoli, she pointed that there is no action in the european parliament supporting Palestine in reality, saying that "We talk every day in the Parliament about respect for human rights, and then what happens in practice?"

"The President of the European Parliament invites the President of Israel for Holocaust commemoration without saying a single word about human rights, in fact, the President of Israel said that anyone who speaks ill of Israel is anti-Semitic," she said, continuing "when he spoke, I left the room because this cannot exist, it cannot exist that a person has a microphone and does not respect human rights, it is an extremely serious matter."

In his turn, Italian MP Arturo Scotto said that "The problem of this time are the double standards, that is the idea that not all conflicts are equal and not all rights are equal."

he stressed the need to build an initiative that seeks to involve not only the most traditionally progressive left forces but also try to speak to some sectors that have an interest in unlocking the peace process.

Regarding the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the representative of the European Palestine forum at the seminar, Robert Andrews, said, "while we commemorate the tragedy of the Nakba, I remind you that the Nakba for Palestinians is not a single event that occurred 75 years ago, but a continuous and systematic process to this day."

"Palestinians continue to face Israeli apartheid policies of forced displacement and dispossession in all areas of their presence in the occupied territories," Andrews said, calling for "using the parliamentary and trade union energies supporting the Palestinian right to convey a message to the international community that the Euro-Mediterranean region will be the first center that works on the application of international law and begins a new and fair period in relations between Europe and the Palestinian cause."

"After 75 years of suffering and displacement, now is the time to put an end to European hypocrisy on the issue of Palestine and support the principles of a world order based on human rights and international law, in the existence of which Europe itself was a pioneer," he added.