Palestinians follow what is happening hour by hour in Mumbai; the results of the bombings, shots fired at tourists, at hotel workers. Palestinians watch with painful understanding the death of innocent people and police officers in a country not their own.As opposed to the celebrations with which they greet the deaths of innocent people in Israel.
We are sorry for those difficult moments experienced by India.Here we have a nation that was born some sixty years ago via a partition initiated by Britain, along with the concommitant transfer of populations between the two areas, that has been the victim of countless terror attacks by Muslims ever since. Who does that sound like?
Regardless who claims the attacks in India, which group has planned and rallied to shake the country’s stability and security, it has become clear that our neighbor Israel will try to turn the tragedy into a case against the Islamic nation.
As a response to reports condemning Islam along with atrocities committed in its name we in Palestine announce our pain and solidarity with the Indian nation and emphasize the following:
First: The Indian nation was and will remain loyal and friendly to Palestinians since the days of Mahatma Gandhi's revolutionary period. The great man’s daughter Indira Gandhi then her son the President Rajiv Gandhi and even to this very moment the Palestinian people have felt the support of India. We will not forget Indian strength as Palestine stands up against Israel.
The generous aid to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the many scholarships offered to Palestinian students from India has endeared to us a nation whose history is not so different than our own. Palestine is a nation suffering from a siege, an occupation and constant aggression and we stand alongside India as forces act against the safety of its people.
Secondly: Regardless of who carried out the attacks in Mumbai we as Palestinians announce our condemnation of such an act against our Indian friends.
Thirdly: We must assert that the taking of Israeli hostages by the Mumbai attackers in no way indicates Palestinian involvement. Attempts have been made to link the violence in India with Palestinian groups, but these efforts will be unsuccessful.
Fourth: Palestine is a friend to India, and we are a nation who remembers our friends in their time of need. We watch the news closely, and feel the pain of the bleeding in Mumbai.
We Palestinians, as tired and frustrated as we are with the endless Israeli attacks against civilians send hope and encouragement to India and the residents of Mumbai. In your time of need, sorrow and uncertainty India, we send our support.
Glory to God, peace to earth and love to people.
As usual, the Palestinian Arabs are noticing only too well the parallels between the terror attacks against India and the terror attacks that they engineer and celebrate against Israel. And they want to publicly distance themselves from the international terror that, in many ways, they pioneered in the 1970s, and even try to score political points from it.