‘Fijians should be ashamed’ — Shamima Ali

Close to 100 people gathered at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) in Suva yesterday to protest the opening of the new Israel Embassy at the Fijian Holdings Limited Tower, directly opposite the FWCC office.

Members of the Non-Government Organisation Coalition for Human Rights, and Fijians for Palestine held up placards and displayed banners that spelled out free Palestine.

Coalition chairperson Shamima Ali says Israel is a rogue country that’s committing genocide, and is under scrutiny from the International Criminal Court.

“And we continue to support Israel and giving it such prominence and having it in our country. We are against it. We are for humanity. We are against genocide that is happening,” Ms Ali said.

Police, including the K9 unit, were present at the protest site, with officers advising the protesters to stay inside the FWCC compound.

“We believe that this is going to cause instability. Fiji should be ashamed of ourselves because we are only one of three countries that have turned down what the United Nations had said against genocide, ceasefire.”

Ms Ali said the Fijian people should not be carried away by emotions.

“The Fiji Government should stay within the boundaries of international law.”

When asked on how does Fiji balance the concept of a region of peace with the opening of the new embassy on the backdrop concerning human rights, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said: “That is none of our business.

“We deal with them at diplomatic level we are dealing with members of the United Nations in setting up and allowing them to set up their embassy here. The human rights violations are being dealt with in the appropriate court of the United Nations and we have our representative and our submission will go there.”

Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged those protesting to do something positive with their time.

Mr Sa’ar said there was a good and positive relationship between Israel Government and the Fiji counterparts.

Regarding the issue of Palestine, Mr Sa’ar said: “The problem of our Palestinian neighbours was always the same, they were never to have their own state as much as they were eager to destroy ours.

“As you know United Nations resolution from 1947 suggested partition of the land to the states, they refused. Arab countries invaded they lost the war. When they had opportunities during their history to take care of their interest, they choose this destructive path to try to destroy our state instead of caring for their own future.”