Kanaan calls for annual occasion to remember Palestinian cause

AMMAN — Secretary General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Abdullah Kanaan on Monday called on peacebuilding institutions to make October 24 a day for the free press to promote international legitimacy and the application of resolutions related to the Palestinian cause. 

In remarks to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Kanaan said that the world currently marks four occasions that are annually celebrated on October 24: UN Day, the entry into force of the UN Charter in 1945, Global Media and Information Literacy Week, and ensuring that the media is reliable and accessible to all.

On this date, World Development Information Day, concerned with raising public awareness of the importance of development and international cooperation, is also celebrated.

The secretary general wondered about Palestine and Jerusalem’s participation in these celebrated occasions, stressing that the tragedy of the Palestinian people and daily Israeli crimes of murder, arrest, forcible immigration and attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites have become a serious issue that causes suffering for all Palestinians. 

He added that the Israeli occupation has reached a level of oppression that humanity has never witnessed in modern history, reiterating that it is no longer acceptable for this phenomenon to exist in a world that heralds freedom, democracy and human dignity.

Kanaan stressed that occasions will remain an "empty theory" and have no humanitarian value as long as there are unarmed people in Palestine under occupation who are murdered with the most modern lethal weapons, noting the current situations in the West Bank and Gaza constitute "clear proof" of these abuses.