On a sunny Thursday last week, both Isreali and Palestinian envoys presented their letters of credence to President Lazarus Chakwera. There is no love lost between the two nations due to their time-honoured fight over Jerusalem, where Chakwera promised to open Malawi’s mission in Israel. Our Staff Writer SUZGO CHITETE caught up with Palestinian Ambassador Hanan Jarrar.

Jarrar and Chakwera face the cameras

 Q

: Glad to see you again. When you came here in November 2020, were you specifically sent to meet Chakwera?

A

: Yes, that was my first time to come to Malawi and I came as a special envoy to our President Mahmoud Abbas to meet President Chakwera over his decision to open a mission in Jerusalem. We had a fruitful discussion with the President and I also met parliamentarians and members of the civil society as well as  the media just to make our position how we feel about Israel’s invasion of our land.

I am the Palestinian ambassador to Malawi now. I am based in South Africa, but responsible for South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and now Malawi.

Q

: During your second meeting with President Chakwera, did you discuss anything to do with your grievances over the decision to open a mission in Jerusalem?

A

: Well, we did not raise that issue because we raised it already. We are happy that now we have a diplomatic relationship with Malawi and we did discuss a number of areas of mutual interest. We are more than willing to partner Malawi on its development agenda and I did assure President Chakwera on this.

As Palestine, we have what we call Palestine International Cooperation Agency (Pica), which receives requests from different nations according to their priorities. Based on its requests, Malawi stands to benefit from this. We provide support, especially in areas where we have expertise such as agriculture, water, education, information technology,  risk management and medical fields. After presenting my letters, we are looking at ways of how to work with Malawi. We should be having a team to come and do a needs assessment here in Malawi and our immediate support will target flood victims.

Q

: Is this support coming to dissuade Malawi from opening a mission in Jerusalem?

A

: No! No! While we need support on the diplomatic front, we also need to have strong cooperation on development. We feel duty-bound to support other countries in areas that we are good at. This, of course, must not raise the expectation that we will provide money, no.

Our agency works under the United Nations’ South-South cooperation. We provide human capital say if Malawi needs support in agriculture. We can send people with the know-how to come and work with Malawians. Pica has been working in Africa in many countries. We have done some agriculture interventions in Namibia and Senegal and our recent mission was in Ivory Coast where our medical specialists operate on several children. Palestine is a willing partner despite being under occupation by Israel. Even with this invasion, daily torture, we still remain true to our principles to offer support to others.

Q

: But you still need support from countries like Malawi on your issue with Israel?

A

: We surely need the support of everyone and the Russia-Ukraine war has exposed the hypocrisy of the world. The powerful nations have all spoken against Russia. They have imposed sanctions on Russia, yet our plight does not attract the same level of sympathy and consideration. Our suffering has become normal and no one wants to intervene. So, yet we need the support of everyone. I must state here that our issue with Israel has nothing to do with religion. It is about human rights and everyone who cares about human rights must care about our suffering.

Q

: Just how did you miss an opportunity to seek Chakwera’s support on this issue?

A

: No, I did not remind the President about that. But I find his invitation to me to present my letters of credence a positive step. That shows commitment and willingness to work with us. Our dialogue will continue and we presented an invitation from President Mahmoud Abbas to President Chakwera to visit Palestine. We would love to host him. Knowing that he is the man of faith, Palestine is the cradle for Jesus Christ. We want him not just for an official visit, but also visit Bethlehem and a church where Jesus Christ was born . He should also visit Jerusalem. We  really want to open new dialogue. n

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