HYDERABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has rejected two-state solution for Palestinian problem proposed by caretaker prime minister and seconded by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Raza Rabbani, and warned that whosoever tries to bargain over Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque will face peoples’ wrath.

He said to participants in ‘Gaza march’ organised by his party on Station Road here on Friday evening that stiff resistance by Hamas had changed the course of history and forced Arab rulers, who were otherwise busy taking steps to normalise relations with Israel, to review their policies towards the apartheid regime.

He said that even the United Nations secretary general had to say that Hamas attack did not occur in a vacuum and it had a reason because Palestine’s lands were occupied and innocent people were being martyred there daily by Israeli occupation forces.

He recalled history of how the illegitimate state of Israel had come into begin post-World War I period and Jews were brought to Palestine to settle with the UN’s nod at that time and then finally Israel was born in 1948.

He said that 15,000 Palestinians were martyred in 1948 and 1.5 million people were displaced and that the Hamas was aiming to put an end to this occupation. On Oct 7 Hamas hoodwinked Israeli intelligence which had huge military power and also shattered the myth of Israel’s invincibility, he said.

Rehman said that Israel had bombed health facilities, refugee camps, children and women while Hamas had targeted military installations and taken generals hostage. The heart wrenching scenes from Gaza and Palestinians’ extraordinary courage and faith in God and in the face of imminent death had increased peoples’ interest in learning about the source of their resilience and hence they were turning to Quran, he said.

He said that Palestinian women and children might ask former chief of army staff Rahil Sharif what was he doing as head of joint Muslim military when they were being slaughtered.

He urged people to keep protesting and collecting fund for Palestinians and lambasted caretaker prime minister for talking about the two-state solution which was also supported by PPP’s Raza Rabbani.

He warned all political forces including PPP, PML-N against bargaining on Palestine issue by referring to the two-state solution. “We will not accept the Israeli state as it is a Muslim state of Palestine from day one,” he said.

He said that Quaid-e-Azam had also opposed Israel and supported Palestine. Even the All India Muslim League kept raising Palestinians’ right on their land during the course of the independence movement, he said, adding 1940 Resolution also mentioned the Palestine issue.

He said that if rulers tried to agree on any solution in support of Israel they would be swept away by enraged masses. Whosoever bargained on Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque would face peoples’ wrath, he added.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2023