Prime Minister Robert Abela has stated that he is open to see both Rosianne Cutajar and Justyne Caruana return to the Labour Party should they wish, but said that neither of them have made an official request to come back to the party.
“I’ve stayed consistent with these two as well as others who have in the past done actions that needed to pay their own political price”, said Abela, “I do not exclude that these approaches will come. In the moment these requests are received, we will consider them in a positive manner within the party structures.”
The Prime Minister also commented on the situation occurring in Gaza, saying that “Malta is observing what is going on with great interest” and that the government has always remained consistent in their strong position on the conflict.
Abela said that the government has condemned Hamas’ October 7th attacks while promoting Israel’s right to defend themselves within the parameters of international and humanitarian law. However, he was critical of the high death toll emerging from the Gaza strip.
Abela told journalists that “we have also stated that it is not right that the right of self-defence should ever result in retaliation leading the death of tens of thousands of innocent people (over 20,000) – most of which are women and children.” In this regard, he said that “the country holds the obligation to see that there is no [further] loss of innocent lives.”
Abela did not say whether this could be labelled as a genocide or not when he was questioned, though that he’ll leave this for other people to judge. He had also criticized other world leaders, including those in Europe, for being “afraid to step on toes” in their reluctance to call for a permanent ceasefire, as Malta had.
“It is very clear that if there was a united effort calling for a permanent ceasefire, many of the atrocities that happened and are still happening, very likely do not happen.”