WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (APP): Two major Kashmiri organizations — the World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF) and the Kashmir Diaspora Coalition (KDC) — Saturday issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are being subjected to deadly Israeli aerial attacks that have ravaged the enclave.
“The relentless Israeli bombing of one of the most densely populated civilian populations of the world for two weeks non-stop, deliberately targeting innocent civilians’ targets — homes, hospitals, and schools where there is nowhere to escape and hide — must be condemned”, the statement said, pointing out that the most horrific strike was on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday killed over 500 innocent people, including patients, healthcare workers, and doctors.
“Palestinians have been living under 76 years of brutal Israeli occupation, settler-colonialism, and an apartheid state,” the statement said.
“With a combination of forcible internal and external displacement in the tiny, isolated enclave of Gaza has been described by the international human rights organizations as ‘the world’s largest open-air prison’,” it said.
“These atrocities and mass killings in Palestine resonate with the people of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), who have been denied their right to self-determination. The 1948 UN Security Council resolutions on Palestine, and UN Security Council resolution of the same year on Kashmir must be respected and implemented in both nations to bring about lasting peace in the two conflicts.”
” In the meantime,” the statement said, “the UN Security Council must urge an immediate ceasefire to stop the bloodshed of Palestinians and Israelis.”