Shashi Tharoor affirms support to Palestine at Congress rally in Kerala: ‘No one needs to teach me about this issue’

In Thursday’s rally, neither Tharoor nor other Congress leaders made any reference to Hamas. Instead, the speakers focused on the plight of the Palestinian people in the wake of the continuing attacks by Israel.

Addressed @INCKerala’s Palestine Solidarity rally today at Kozhikode beach. KPCC President Sh. @SudhakaranINC presided, GenSec @kcvenugopalMP inaugurated and prominent leaders including @iuml4thepeople Chief Sayyid @SadikAliThangal, IUML General Secretary @PKKunhalikutty,… pic.twitter.com/wpCw4rSeF1

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 23, 2023

Tharoor recalled his meetings with the late leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, during his days at the UN, and also said he had later visited Arafat’s tomb at the Palestinian city of Ramallah. “No one needs to teach me about this issue. I am seized of its gravity,” he said.

All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal, who inaugurated the rally, recalled that Congress has always stood with the cause of the Palestinian people. “It is a fight of a people to live in the soil they were born in. Congress policy has always been to stand with the people of Palestine,’’ he said.

Senior leader and former Congress state president, K Muraleedharan, who moved a resolution on the conflict, said the Congress would not resort to a stand that the October 7 attack on Israel was a terror attack. “It should be seen as a reaction of people who have been facing hardship for years. Congress is fully with Palestine. The resolution of the Congress Working Committee has given unconditional support for Palestine,’’ he said.

Several leaders of the Muslim League also took part in the rally.