Venezuelan assistance to Palestine has played an important role in helping Palestine achieve domestic development goals, said Palestine's ambassador to venezuela, Linda Sabeh Ali.
Sabeh Ali said her people hope to achieve some of the same freedoms the Venezuelan people have enjoyed in recent years. “Venezuela is a free land of liberators. We dream of a free country like this [Venezuela],” Sabeh Ali said in a January 21 interview to Venezuelan state media.
During the interview, the diplomat expressed her gratitude for the assistance provided by the Venezuelan government to the Palestinian people.
She said more than US$10 million in aid has been collected, and more than 13 million products were donated to Palestine after the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip in July. Israel's offensive killed about 2000 people, mostly civilians and children, and destroyed a large part of Gaza’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and a power plant.
Sabeh Ali also highlighted the importance of bilateral cooperation in the area of education. The two governments signed an agreement last November that will grant nearly 1000 Palestinians the chance to receive a free university education in Venezuela.
Since former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, Venezuela and Palestine have maintained strong ties.
[Reprinted from TeleSUR English.]
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