KARACHI: Jamal Juma, a leader of Stop The Wall Campaign, Palestine, said on Saturday that the Palestinians were worried that under American pressure the Pakistan government would start diplomatic relations with Israel.

In an exclusive interview with The News on the sidelines of World Social Forum (WSF), he said: "Pakistan government started to talk about normalizing relations with Israel. We are afraid that under American pressure the Pakistan government will start diplomatic relations with Israel."

He said Pakistan was one country the Palestinians hoped would give real support to their cause.

He said the biggest problem the Palestinians were facing was occupation. "The biggest problem is occupation. The second biggest obstacle is lack of support from the international community. That means the big powers are supporting Israel and they are backing Israel and the occupation while the Arab and Islamic states have a very negative position in a way that they are not supporting us," he said. "They are not putting any pressure or (are not) capable of putting any pressure on America or Europe," he added.

Asked why the Palestinian Liberation Movement (PLO) has been suffering from serious setbacks over the years, he said after the Oslo Agreement the Palestinian political parties didnيt succeed in offering an alternative to the Palestinian people other than the Oslo Agreement despite the fact that most of them were against it.

"That (stance) weakened the position of the Palestinian political parties and their influence on the Palestinian people. There are lots of challenges in front of the Palestinian movement, including the current bad economic situation, high unemployment rate, poverty and the weaknesses of the Palestinian Authority as we feel it has become hostage of the American and Israeli policies simply because donations and money that make this Authority survive is coming from Europe and the United States. So this is one of the factors that contributed to the fragmentation of the Palestinian political parties," he said.

He said the main party of the Authority was Al Fatah which was the primary component of the PLO that signed agreements with Israel and was still committed to these agreements despite the fact that they were not valid any more and Israel itself was violating them by re-occupying Authority areas."

Source: jang.com.pk