Bangladesh pledges $50,000 for Palestine city

Bangladesh has pledged $50,000 to the development fund of Al-Quds and Al-Sharif of Palestine, reiterating its ‘unstinted support’ for a fully sovereign Palestine.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni made the announcement on Tuesday at the ‘the OIC Foreign Ministers’ Donor Conference on Strategic Plan for Development of Al-Quds and Al-Sharif’ being held in the Baku, the Azerbaijan capital.

She said Bangladesh harboured a ‘deep goodwill’ for the Palestinians and was ready to be the country’s development partner and “share her development experience”.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs media release said Moni reiterated Bangladesh’s unstinted support to the cause of a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) as its Capital.

She said Bangladesh was proud to be a member of the Al-Quds Committee of the OIC that is mandated to follow up the implementation of Al-Quds-related resolutions adopted by the OIC conferences.

She added that, even as a member of the NAM Committee on Palestine, Bangladesh had been playing its role in moulding international opinion in Palestine’s favour.

Moni condemned the Israeli policy of ‘Judaizing’ the City of Al-Quds through cultural aggression and expanding Jewish settlements.

She remarked that the struggle of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem was ‘a peaceful resistance against occupation’.

She underscored the need for OIC member states “to stand by the Palestinian brothers and sisters at this juncture of history”.

The 12th OIC Summit held in Cairo in February had adopted the Strategic Plan for Development of Al-Quds and Al-Sharif that anticipated the development of 12 sectors in the occupied East Jerusalem and called for a Donor Conference to finance implementation of the plan.