Observer of Palestine to UN: International community must stop Israel’s breach of International Law

Wafa- Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, called on the international community to stop Israel’s breach of international law, especially its settlement activity.

Mansour sent a letter on Wednesday to the UN Secretary General, the Chairman of the UN Security Council, and the President of the UN General Assembly regarding the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as a result of the illegal, aggressive policies of Israel and its illegitimate settlers towards the Palestinians.

He noted that Israel is intensifying its breach of international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, with the aim of enforcing its control on the Palestinian territory and increasing the hardship endured by Palestinians living under occupation, and that it is sabotaging international efforts to resume negotiations for peace and toward a two-state solution.

He added that Israel is increasing its seizure of Palestinian land, settlement building and home demolitions, especially in East Jerusalem, with the aim of creating facts on the ground and changing the demographic balance, in stark defiance of its legal obligations according to the Fourth Geneva Convention and of repeated calls by the international community to end all settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory.

Mansour also alluded to the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, recently killing two Palestinians and causing extensive damage to property, and its prevention of any reconstruction of the Strip.

He added that Israel is escalating its raids of Palestinian towns and its arrests and imprisonment of Palestinians, as well as worsening its treatment of Palestinian prisoners who are suffering under inhumane conditions not permissible by any international law.
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Mansour expressed the Palestinian people’s appreciation of the efforts by international activists, including those participating in the Freedom Flotilla, to provide humanitarian and moral aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

He stressed the commitment of the Palestinian people and their leadership to the two-state solution based on 1967 borders and to the use of diplomatic and peaceful efforts to achieve this and activate the non-alienable rights of the Palestinian people for self-determination in their independent Palestinian state.

Mansour called on the international community, including the UN Security Council, to uphold its responsibility and act based on its legal commitments to stop Israel’s ongoing violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and take coordinated measures to force it to immediately cease all its illegal actions and commit to peaceful negotiations based on international terms specified in UN resolutions, as well as in the Quartet’s road map for peace, the Madrid Conference and the Arab Peace Initiative.