A Statement Regarding the Explosion of Violence in the Middle East
October 18, 2023
The Alija Izetbegović Foundation expresses great concern and pain regarding the explosion of terrifying violence that has gripped the Middle East, and especially the Gaza Strip, and mourns the innocent civilian victims on both sides of the conflict. We condemn all forms of terrorism, whether committed by individuals, groups or states.
This conflict has been simmering for decades and has the potential to grow into a regional conflict, but also have painful repercussions throughout the world, straining relations between people of different origins, with unimaginable consequences that we can already witness.
We state that the status quo and decades of occupation of the Palestinian people can no longer be tolerated. Killing, impeding freedom of movement, economic blockade, denying water, food, electricity, fuel, and therefore dignity and any sense of progress to the Palestinian people by Israel is intolerable, it is not in accordance with the international law and will not ultimately resolve the conflict.
A third of the civilians killed so far in Gaza, numbering in the thousands, are children, and this cannot be the way one country, which claims to be democratic, modern, advanced and respectful of human rights, decides to ensure peace for its own population. The security of one’s own population cannot be achieved by oppressing another, with anti-civilizational attempts to forcibly relocate an entire population under the guise of humanitarian action.
We fear that, witnessing the injustice and suffering that the Palestinian people are now going through, new generations will grow up in Palestine, but also throughout the Arab countries and the whole world, losing faith and hope in the worldly and human justice as well as the impartiality of the powerful countries of the world, and this can only lead to a spiral of violence in the future.
Therefore, we urge that the killing be stopped immediately, that international organizations, powerful countries of the world, including Arab and Muslim countries, but also all the peace-loving people of the world, raise their voices, make all efforts and do everything in their power to stop the suffering of the innocent and to finally reach a just solution to the Palestinian question.
THE BOARD OF THE ALIJA IZETBEGOVIĆ FOUNDATION