A former Lebanese minister has asked the Arab Parliamentary Union to extend an invitation to all Arab parliaments to look at the terrible siege experienced by Jerusalem. Mr. Bishara Merhej said that the parliamentarians must consider the racist procedures applied by the Israeli occupation authorities, especially the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes, the attacks on the holy sites and the attempt to expel the city’s MPs, and take action. The MPs were, he reiterated, elected in free and fair elections praised by election monitors from Europe in 2007.
In press interviews in Beirut, Mr. Merhej said that the move by Arab parliaments to discuss the MPs’ issue would push their governments to take practical steps to put pressure on the Zionist state and confront its racist policies. This would be more so if the discussions resulted in specific recommendations at government level. He also said that the cross-faction agreement on Jerusalem within Palestine itself, despite some international pressure to keep the groups divided, counters previous excuses used by Arab regimes for not taking any concrete action for the Palestinian cause.