Another Step Forward For Palestine: Cyprus Upgrades Diplomatic Mission to Embassy

Cyprus officially upgraded a Palestinian diplomatic mission’s status on its soil to a Palestinian embassy. Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis met with Palestine’s Riyad al-Malki to commemorate the upgrade. Cyprus was one of the many countries last year that backed Palestine’s victorious attempt in the UN General Assembly to change Palestine’s United Nations observer status to a non-member observer status.

 

 

Cyprus is also one of the eight EU countries (including Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) that recognizes the state of Palestine.

 

There are approximately 103 Palestinian representative buildings, diplomatic missions & embassies all over the world and Cyprus’s decision to elevate a diplomatic mission of Palestine to that of an embassy is a rare sight; and a welcome step forward for Palestinians who strive for a greater representation of their people & state in the international community.

 

Though Cyprus has economic bonds with Israel’s government, the party which was the most unhappy when Palestine procured a near-membership status in the United Nations, Cyprus has been aiding Palestinians with multiple financial programs that include scholarships and development projects that amount over 2 million U.S. dollars since the late 1980′s.

 

As the Israeli government pushes ahead with its controversial settlement development in the Palestinian zones on the infamous West Bank, support for the state of Israel has waned considerably among the international community following the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident and the continuing human rights abuses at the hands of Israel’s security forces.

 

Countries such as Cyprus have gone far in their condemnation of Israel’s actions regarding the building of settlements on Palestinian land and the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip.

 

Though the Obama administration also had surprising altercations with Netanyahu’s Israeli government, the United States continues to support sanctions on Iran and the blocking of Palestine from becoming a full fledged member in the United Nations.

 

Palestine’s Malki stated that Cyprus’s decision as a European state to upgrade a diplomatic mission to embassy sent a very “important message” and that the “courageous step taken by Cyprus will be taken by others in the European Union.”

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  • Prof. Taheri

    The Palestinians could have had a peaceful state…

    in 1937 with the Peel Plan, but they violently rejected it;

    in 1939 with the MacDonald White Paper, but they violently rejected it, pursuing their (in)famous battle-cry, “Itbach al-Yahud”–Slaughter the Jews;

    in 1948 with UN 181, but they violently rejected it. They chose instead to launch an offensive together with five regular Arab armies in an effort to “drive the Jews into the sea;”

    from 1948-1967 in the West Bank and Gaza, where the Arabs had ethnically cleansed every single Jew, but they violently rejected it. They chose instead to infiltrate the Jewish country and murder its civilians;

    after 1967, but instead, they and the rest of the Arab world issued the 3 No’s of Khartoum: No to peace with Israel, No to recognition of Israel, No to negotiations with Israel;

    after the 1993 Oslo Accords. But instead they chose to introduce their latest weapon against the Jews: The suicide bomber;

    in 2000 with the Barak offer, but they violently rejected it, and started the gruesome series of suicide massacres known as the “Second Intifada;”

    in Gaza after the Israeli withdrawal of 2005, but they violently rejected it with thousands of missile and rocket attacks;

    in 2008 with the Olmert offer, but they violently rejected. Every single month there have been dozens of attacks and attempted attacks from both the West Bank and Gaza. The only things preventing a bloodbath in Israel are the Israeli security measures: The barrier and checkpoints in the West Bank, the border and anti-missile system in Gaza, and the intelligence that leads to preemptive arrests.

    The Palestinians had many chances.

    They rejected them all because destroying Israel was a higher priority.

    And it still is. They would only stop attacking Israelis and talk peace if Israel accepts the right of return, in other words, peace with Israel only if there is no Israel.

    This total rejection of the Jews’ right to self-determination, and the relentless attempts to murder Jews, may lead to events such as the ones brilliantly depicted in Jonathan Bloomfield’s award-winning book, “Palestine,” in which actual history and future predictions are thinly veiled as fiction.