November 29 is the day of world solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The 32nd Session of the UN General Assembly in 1977 decided to commemorate November 29 every year as the day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. This was an expression of the international community’s firm support to and solidarity with the Palestinians’ struggle for winning back their national rights and founding an independent state.

The Palestinians, who were deprived of their territory due to the manoeuvres of the US and Israel, have waged a long, proactive struggle to put an end to foreign occupation and win back their national rights.

The Palestinian issue has attracted close attention of the international community as it is not only a matter of the sovereignty of the people of this country but also a problem directly linked with ensuring peace in the Middle East.

The Palestinian people are now in a crisis of life and death.

More than 44 000 Palestinians have been killed and many others reduced to refugees due to Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks since October last year.

Most of the buildings in Gaza were destroyed and a large area of farmland for producing food was devastated. According to a UN agency, the debris of buildings destroyed by the Israeli forces amounts to 37 million tons and it will take 14 years to remove it by mobilizing 100 trucks. And there are a large number of unexploded bombs in the debris.

Not content with causing such a horrible humanitarian disaster, Israel issued a statement declaring that it would bulldoze the office building of the UN Palestine refugee relief organization in the refugee settlement in the West Bank and quit the agreement allowing the activity of the organization.

For the Palestinians who are at the crossroads of life and death, the aid from this organization is as good as an oasis in a desert.

Israel’s atrocities are tantamount to the outrages Nazi Germany committed in European countries to exterminate nations in the first half of the 20th century.

Despite such barbarities, the Palestinian people continue to fight.

Sovereignty is life and soul of each nation, and therefore the Palestinians are fighting against Israel death-defyingly.

Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which is becoming a hotbed of national extinction and manslaughter, should be achieved as soon as possible.

Broad segments of the international community should not turn their eyes away from the death of innocent Palestinians, but punish Israel which is dead set on national extermination in disregard of international law.