Greece has historical ties of friendship and solidarity with the Palestinian people, Palestinian Ambassador to Greece, Marwan Toubassi, said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).
"Greece's policy has always been to support the right of the Palestinians to acquire their own homeland, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council," he added.
The full interview follows:

1. Can you describe the web of bilateral relations between Greece and Palestine?
 
Greece has historical ties of friendship and solidarity with the Palestinian people. Greece's policy has always been to support the right of the Palestinians to acquire their own homeland, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The Palestinian delegation offices were inaugurated here in Athens in 1982, just after the historic visit of our late President Yasser Arafat to Greece after his forced expulsion by the Americans and the Israelis from Lebanon. The relations between our deceased leaders, Andreas Papandreou and Yasser Arafat, had by now become brotherly. Greece as a member of the EU can play an important role on the basis of the stable views of the prime minister and the government as well as of all the political parties , with the unanimous vote of a resolution of the Greek Parliament in December 2015 during the visit of our President to Greece that supported the Two State Solution at the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Concerning the bilateral relations between Greece and the Palestinian State, we are pleased that bilateral agreements and memoranda of cooperation were signed in the early 1990s in various economic sectors between our two countries. We recently launched the political consultation agreement during meetings held both in Athens and in Ramallah as well as during the joint Greek-Palestinian Ministerial Committee, which took place for the first time in December 2018 and which was accompanied by the exchange of official visits by President Abbas and Prime Minister Tsipras to Palestine and Greece in recent years.

2. How is the Middle East Peace process developing? Are you optimistic about finding a solution? 
 
No progress has been made in the Middle East Peace Process, which was developed during the Oslo Agreements between the PLO and Israel, where both parties agreed to the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and Gaza for a transitional period of five years, followed by negotiations on issues such as refugees, Jerusalem, water and borders. Regarding the establishment of a Palestinian independent state, the PLO accepted at that time an unfair compromise and agreed to the establishment of our state in only 22% of the total historical land of Palestine and proceeded by recognizing the state of Israel. However, what we received on Israel's behalf was the refusal to recognize the Palestinian State, the expansion of the occupation, and the expansion of the project of mass colonial settlements. The negotiations collapsed when Israeli extremist extremists assassinated Prime Minister Isaak Rabin in 1999 and then followed the poisoning of our late leader Yasser Arafat in 2004. Since then, Israeli right-wing governments have continued to expand their colonial settlement plans in the occupied Palestinian territories and refuse to implement all that was agreed in Oslo. In my opinion, there is no political solution in the near future, since right-wing, nationalist, extremist and fundamentalist Israelis control the Israeli government and implement colonial policies backed by the biased, ultra-right US administration that is trying to impose the so called “ Deal of the Century which will be revealed in all its glory after Israeli elections in two weeks”, "Donald Trump said, when Netanyahu is probably elected. A plan that we, the Palestinians and all other Arab countries, reject as it does not take into account International Legitimacy, UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. It has become clear that the US President is not interested in playing a constructive role in achieving peace between Israel and Palestine. The peace that he envisions for the Middle East has no room for Palestine. Defying the rules of international sovereignty, as he showed by delivering to Israel the Golan Heights which do not belong to him in the first place and yesterday was severely criticized by 14 UN Security Council member states. Trump's peace-making capabilities - at least in theory - are limited only by his imagination. All the above are signs of a decaying administration, the end of an era, as I am sure that the democratic world will stand united against such phenomena and policies. The Palestinian government has signed more than 105 international treaties, honoring and fulfilling its duties and obligations towards the international community.We are now members of more than 20 international organizations and since last month the Palestinian State presides over the UN group, UN77 and China. To date, 136 countries out of 193 have officially recognized the Palestinian State. We expect other countries, including Greece, to do so at this critical time when Israeli and American propaganda has no precedent.  Now is the historic moment when the international community must stand up and save the only plan to reach a peaceful agreement, namely the Two-State Solution, protecting the Palestinian people who are at the edge of the cliff and prevent another historical disaster (Nakba) from taking place. History is constantly changing and I am confidentthat the will of the people for democracy will once again prevail. I remain always an optimistic person when I contemplate the future and I am sure that this historic injustice will come to an end as I firmly believe in freedom, peace, dignity and the necessity to live like all people on this earth.

3. What can be the role of the EU and the International Community?

The European Union has every interest in the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the basis of the decisions of the UN and the European Council given its proximity to the region. However, the EU Member States are also aware of Israeli violations in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, especially in Jerusalem. It is therefore vital for the EU countries to reconsider their strategic cooperation with Israel - including the revision of Article 2 of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the EU and Israel. They will also have to reconsider the joint military exercises that take place in co-operation with an army that commits war crimes everyday as it remains an occupying force that violates all European laws and all the principles of its Founding Declaration, such as human rights, democratic principles , international law, which remain the EU’s non-negotiable commitments. In addition, the EU member states are well aware of the illegal activities of international companies within the Israeli illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, and in this case they must also reconsider their strategic cooperation with Israel. Regarding this issue, we were surprised by the serious issue raised regarding the bidding of the two Greek companies STASY and GEK-TERNA in the Israeli authorities' tender for the construction of a tram line linking the occupied East Jerusalem with several illegal settlements. We understand the geostrategic significance of some collaborations, such as the construction of the East Med pipeline, but we believethat the Greek government will remain firm in its positions and will not allow Greek companies to participate in such projects that clearly violate international law, the resolutions of the Security Council (resolutions 2334 & 446) and the EU's advisory resolution. We are optimistic that the Greek government will avoid any injuries that such actions would cause . I would like to point out that no economic benefit or other promise can compensate for the cooperation with Israel, a state that violates the sovereign borders of a neighboring country, International Law and Conventions. On the other hand, the EU must promote its strategic relations and dialogue with the Palestinian State, especially after its Member States have voted in favor of accepting Palestine as a non-UN member state in 2012. The EU is one of the members of the Quartet who we expect to play a much more active, independent and freed role from the discriminatory and illegal US policy.  In 1948, the Nakba (catastrophe) resulted in 800,000 Palestinians (57% of the total population) displaced from their homeland, the demolition of more than 470 villages by the Zionist organizations, and then the unilateral founding of the State of Israel, violating Security Council Resolution 181 according to which the division of the territory of historic Palestine should produce two separate states. It is now time for the EU Member States to proceed to the recognition of the Palestinian State at the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. In this respect, we welcome the final statement of the EU-Arab League Summit held a few weeks ago in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, which confirmed the two-state solution at the 1967 borders as well as the statement by Prime Minister Tsipras in which he supported the two-state solution at the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, the restoration of UNRWA's provisions clearly stating that Israel with the 273 illegal colonial settlements and its 650,000 settlers are blatantly violating International Law and the Geneva Convention. The international community has clear legal and moral obligations to the situation in Palestine and should demand the immediate cessation of all these measures that violate international law and the historical status quo. We expect the international community to protect the integrity of International Law by ensuring that Israel is no longer seen as a state above laws and rules and to support the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as they are confirmed by International Law, UN Resolutions and the International Court.

4. Is the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians based on the 1967 borders realistic?
 
The two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestine State is the core of the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict adopted by the UN, the EU and the Arab Peace Initiative. Our vision for achieving and safeguarding peace was expressed by our President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN Security Council meeting in February 2018 and can be achieved through peaceful negotiations and mutual concessions under the auspices of the international community, where the US will no longer be the only mediator because of their biased and illegal recent decisions on Jerusalem and UNRWA.
A vital and still pending issue is the pursuit of a viable and fair solution for the Palestinian refugees and displaced persons in 1948, based on UN Resolution 194. Palestinians and Israelis can live peacefully together in two separate states at the 1967 borders, provided that the national sovereignty of both states is clear and that the extremist Zionist ideology ceases to be manifested.

5. How would you comment on the attempted equation and identification of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism?

Anti-Semitism is  fanaticism directed against all the Semites (Arabs, Christian Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East, Canaanites, Ethiopians, Arameans, and Jews). Anti-Zionism is opposed to the political ideology of Zionism, a movement that insists on all its political expressions in prioritizing the rights of Jews in one homeland to the detriment of the Palestinians who have lived there since ancient times.  This became clearer last summer when the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed a law that defines Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish people only. The law claims that all Jews, even those with no connection with Israel, enjoy the right to self-determination which all Palestinians are deprived of, including 20% ??of the Palestinian official citizens of Israel’s population. In other words, this racist law creates two statuses in Israel - as well as in the occupied territories - based on a system of ethnic-religious classification that grants all Jews superior rights over all Palestinians. Netanyahu's unprecedented and unacceptable statement affirms the above mentioned, "Israel is not a state for all its citizens. Israel is the Nation-State of the Jews and only them." Criticism of Israeli terrorism, ethnic cleansing, displacement, mass arrests and apartheid, even by Israeli groups and humanitarian organizations, is not an attack on Judaism - a religion that we respect as any other, and cannot be regarded as an act of anti-Semitism or racism because in the same way we criticize ISIS and other extreme right-wing political forces in Europe, as well as the current administration of Trump in the US. The Palestinian and Arab rejection of Zionism is not a matter of ethnic, religious or social hostility towards the Jews, but rather rejection of the colonization of their country. I would like to emphasize on my firm belief that racism, discrimination, hatred, violence or intimidation towards a particular group of people because of their nationality, race or religion, including anti-Semitism, are a growing and serious threat to the entire international community and must be tackled and combated. I would like to strongly condemn the recent vandalism of the Jewish cemeteries that took place here in Greece, in Thessaloniki and in France as well as the vandalism of churchesand mosques, holy places of worship that took place in Israel and Palestine by Israeli groups of extremists. But let's not confuse dissimilar things, criticism of Israeli policies and solidarity with the Palestinians is not anti-Semitism, and those who stand in solidarity with our people (politicians, activists, artists, humanitarian organizations and movements, including Jewish organizations) have no reason to apologize for their basic positions of principle.