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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

The State of Palestine Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Tamer Almassri, yesterday reiterated his country’s call for the removal of illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by some Western countries, saying the embargo was counter productive.

In an interview after paying a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Fredrick Shava, Ambassador Almassri described the illegal sanctions as a “collective punishment” against the people of Zimbabwe.

“We exchanged solidarity messages between our two countries and as Palestine we have said we are against the sanctions against Zimbabwe and we call for the removal of the sanctions today and not tomorrow because it is a form of collective punishment and we refuse that totally,” said Amb Almassri.

Palestine is one of those countries that have stood with Zimbabwe and has been consistent in denouncing the illegal sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States after Harare embarked on a land reform programme aimed at addressing land historical imbalances.

Government distributed land to majority blacks from white minority who had large tracts of fertile land.

The comments by the diplomat come as the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Professor Alena Douhan has completed her assessment of the impact of sanctions on Zimbabwe.

She concluded they were hurting the ordinary people and the economy and should be immediately removed.

Last month, Zimbabwe held a Sadc initiated event in which the regional bloc designated October 25 of every year to collectively denounce the sanctions on Harare.

Turning to relations between the two countries, Amb Almassri said Zimbabwe and Palestine enjoyed cordial bilateral relations dating back to the liberation struggle that saw Harare attaining independence in 1980.

He said their discussion with Minister Shava focused on how they could enhance cooperation between the two countries.

“The meeting was very fruitful,” he said. “I enjoyed the discussion about our bilateral relations and how we can strengthen the relations. We also agreed around common steps to improve our bilateral relations as two sister countries.”

Amb Almassri commended Zimbabwe for standing behind Palastine in its quest to assert its independence against Israeli occupation.

“We also received solidarity message from Zimbabwe with the Palestinian people against Israel apartheid occupation and Zimbabwe is one of the greatest supporters of Palestine and we are proud of our historical relations which dates back before 1980 when our brothers and sisters attained independence, when they defeated colonialism,” he said.

“We also feel with your support we shall defeat and end the apartheid and have a new era of cooperation. We expect exchange visits of officials and also some businessman.”