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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Palestine has expressed gratitude to Zimbabwe for its continued support in the fight against Israel’s occupation and its right for self determination. This was said by Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ms Taghrid Senouar, when she paid a courtesy call on Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda. “I wanted to relay our deepest appreciation as Palestine, as a people and our leadership, to the people of Zimbabwe for its principled position towards Palestinian right to self determination and our independent country based on the aspirations of Palestinian people to live in their independent state and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” she said.

US President Donald Trump recently caused worldwide outrage after recognising the whole of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announced plans to move his country’s embassy there. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly against Trump’s decision, saying it will undermine efforts to achieve peace between Palestine and Israel.

Ambassador Senouar said they also discussed the status of the 6 million Palestinian refugees, including their right to return to their homeland and compensation as stated in UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Advocate Mudenda said they had an instructive interaction with the Palestinian ambassador.

“She was able to inform me on the implications of pronouncements by the US president that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel. It is the view of Palestine that Jerusalem is a sacred city and according to them it is their capital dating back to way before Israel was established as a state,” he said.

Advocate Mudenda said it was his view that the UN High Commission for Refugees should be more involved in the issue of Palestinian refugees. “The UNHCR should take a proactive approach by sending a fact-finding mission to ensure human rights law and international refugee law is observed by Israel in so far as the treatment of Palestinian refugees is concerned,” he said.