Palestinians Focus On Infrastructure To Defend Land From Israel

BANDUNG, W Java, July 13 (Antara) - The people and government of Palestine are continuing to build infrastructure on their land to defend their territory from further Israeli occupation, Lina Aqqad, a Palestinian has stated. "Building infrastructure is our way of defending Palestine from Israeli occupation," according to Lina Aqqad, a Palestinian who participated in infrastructure training in Indonesia on Wednesday. Lina is part of the civil apparatus working for the Palestinian Standards Institution participating in the International Training on Infrastructure for Palestinians, organized by the Indonesian government in Bandung, West Java Province, from July 2-14, 2017. According to her, the Palestinian government and the people are continuing to develop their capacity by participating in infrastructure development training. "This is a better way to build and defend Palestine than killing Israelis," she noted. She added that the Palestinians were building infrastructure, especially schools and hospitals in remote Palestinian areas, to keep the territories from Israeli occupation. "Our land is taken over day after day, so we have to build infrastructure on our lands to defend the Palestinian territories," Lina remarked, adding that constructing buildings with horizontal or lateral orientation was a strategy to defend their territory. "We must continue to build as many buildings as possible horizontally; our construction is not vertical. It is not high-rise buildings, but horizontal," she stressed. International Training on Infrastructure for Palestinians aims to improve the knowledge and understanding of Indonesia's best practices in infrastructure, particularly public facilities such as road and housings. The infrastructure training saw participation by 14 Palestinian civilian apparatuses working in government ministries/agencies in Palestine, including the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Ministry of Transport, and local administration offices. Palestine is one of the priority countries receiving technical assistance from Indonesia. The technical cooperation assistance in the infrastructure sector is part of Indonesia's commitment to help develop the capacity of Palestinian civil apparatus. The capacity building program is a commitment by Indonesia within the framework of South-South Cooperation, which is aimed at promoting development cooperation among developing countries.