Palestinian Territories: Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank were united in grief on Thursday over the death of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, whose untiring support for their cause saw him make blistering attacks on Israel.
The 58-year-old Venezuelan president, who died on Tuesday after a nearly two-year struggle with cancer, was hugely popular with the Palestinians for his outspoken support for their plight.
"This is a great loss for us," president Mahmud Abbas said during a condolence call to the Venezuelan representative's office in Ramallah.
"The Palestinian people will remain faithful to Chavez whose memory will remain engraved in our consciousness in recognition of his courageous support for our right to an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said a day earlier.
The Palestinian love affair with the firebrand Latin American leader began in earnest in January 2009 when he accused Israel of "state terrorism" during its vast 22-day offensive on Gaza and severed all diplomatic ties over its "cruel persecution of the Palestinian people."
|