Beyond the protocol dimension... Palestine is present despite the occupation

Writer: Ahmed Zaki Al-Aridi

The appointment of the Palestinian Ambassador to Cyprus, Abdullah Attari, as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, after the departure of the Israeli Ambassador, and with Swiss mediation, is not just a protocol procedure or a process of handing over a diplomatic file; Rather, it carries political and national connotations that go beyond official ceremonies.

The deeper scene here is that the representative of the Palestinian people, who is still struggling for their freedom and independence, occupies a diplomatic position in a European country, at a time when the Israeli occupation is still imposing its facts on Palestinian land, and preventing our people from enjoying their full national rights.

It is a paradox that summarizes an aspect of the Palestinian story: a people under occupation, but present in the world, carrying their cause, and defending their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination.

Perhaps what happened in Cyprus is a microcosm of what we aspire to in Palestine: for the occupation to leave our land, for the Palestinians to freely undertake the affairs of their homeland, and for our independent, fully sovereign state to be established, with Jerusalem as its capital.

The issue is not only who will be the dean of the diplomatic corps, but when will the state of occupation end and the Palestinian ambassador become a representative of a state exercising full sovereignty over its land, and not of a people still struggling to extract their most basic rights.

The value of this scene does not lie in the protocol alone, but in its political and humanitarian symbolism. Palestine is not absent from the world, its people are not transient in history, and their right to freedom and independence is not lost by statute of limitations.

From the deanship of the diplomatic corps in Cyprus to the independent Palestinian state: We want the day to come when the Palestinian no longer has to explain his right to freedom, but rather exercises it on the land of his homeland, with full sovereignty and dignity.