Prime Minister Joseph Muscat came face-to-face with the suffering Palestinians endure on a daily basis as they struggle with life on the other side of the Israeli-built wall.

Dr Muscat yesterday visited a UN-run school in the Aida refugee camp where 5,000 people live in cramped quarters.

The school has a student population of 400 and the dividing wall erected 10 years ago to segregate Jewish settlements in the West Bank from Palestinian communities runs parallel to it.

On the other side of the wall, olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers are waiting to be harvested as the concrete barrier and imposing watch towers make it impossible for them to till their land.

Sitting on a table in a classroom, accompanied by his wife Michelle, Foreign Minister George Vella and Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella, Dr Muscat heard the grievances of ordinary Palestinians, whose lives are disrupted by the Israeli occupation.

Don’t drown the ship when land is in sight

“Education is an act of resistance,” a Palestinian community leader told Dr Muscat as he explained his hope that children could get a good education and find job opportunities.

The Palestinian delegation then placed a scarf symbolic of the Palestinian resistance around Dr Muscat’s neck and did the same with his wife. It was a gesture of goodwill that had once raised eyebrows when Palestinians in Malta had done the same with then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami.

However, before speaking Dr Muscat and his wife carefully removed the scarf, folded it and placed it in front of them. It was a deliberate decision not to remain with the scarf on and one that sent a signal of the Maltese Government’s assertiveness in foreign relations.

“Malta has always been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It is a historic commitment we have but peace has to happen and I appeal to you to use your moral strength to support your politicians who want to find a solution even if it is a difficult solution,” Dr Muscat said.

He said the Maltese delegation wanted to learn first-hand the problems ordinary Palestinians faced but appealed for compromise. Acknowledging that his was not the message the Palestinians may have wanted to hear, Dr Muscat insisted that justice had to be done but the past was history.

“We have to look to the future for your children’s sake and my appeal to both sides has been to not drown the ship when land is in sight,” Dr Muscat added.

He said Malta believed in a Palestinian state and this was the message he took with him to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

After leaving the refugee camp Foreign Minister George Vella told journalists it was important to see the other side of the coin. “I felt uncomfortable in that concentration camp, if I may call it so, leaving in a luxurious car when people there are living in such poverty.”

Dr Vella said Malta was an honest broker by making its stand clear with both sides and insisted there was mutual respect from the Israelis and Palestinians.

The ongoing peace negotiations featured earlier in talks Dr Muscat had with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

Malta wants “a sustainable and final peace agreement” to be reached between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, Dr Muscat told his Palestinian counterpart.

Direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian delegations started in July after a hiatus of three years but little is known about the negotiations after both sides agreed that only the US should speak. The US gave the two sides nine months to work out their differences and continuous meetings have been held in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

During a press briefing after meeting Mr Hamdallah, Dr Muscat said it was Malta’s natural vocation to serve as a bridge for both Israel and Palestine in dealings with the EU.

“We sense there is realistic optimism on both sides that a peace deal is possible but there is also fear that something may go wrong at the end of the day,” Dr Muscat said, adding his message was clear to both sides that Malta wanted any agreement to be a final one.

Mr Hamdallah said the Palestinians were “serious” about reaching a final deal within the nine-month timeframe, when asked how confident he was about the success of negotiations. “I hope the Israelis are serious as well.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.