RAMALLAH, The State of Palestine sent an urgent letter today to the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, demanding that they assume their responsibilities and pursue concrete measures aimed at enforcing the Convention and previous Declarations.
In the letter, the State of Palestine reaffirmed that Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people cannot be normalized or excused and called for ending Israel’s exemption from its obligations under international law. The State of Palestine also called on the High Contracting Parties to hold Israel, the occupying Power, fully accountable for all of its transgressions against the Palestinian people, including all war crimes and crimes against humanity that it has committed, which is necessary for regional and international stability.
The State of Palestine noted that it is time that the High Contracting Parties consider convening a Conference to determine whether Israel’s violations over the course of its fifty-five-year occupation have transformed this occupation into an illegal regime necessitating even further action by the international community and to ensure accountability and justice for the long-suffering Palestinian people.
It called on the High Contracting Parties to provide the Palestinian people with international protection and to end their suffering by bringing an end to the illegal, immoral, and inhumane Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and to this prolonged injustice that has deprived generations of Palestinians of their inalienable human rights, including to self-determination.
It reiterated that international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, cannot be selectively applied when it comes to the Palestinian people, who continue to unjustly suffer under Israel’s nearly five-decade-long military occupation.
“The Palestinian people living under Israel’s occupation cannot continue to be left to the mercy of this ruthless, illegal military occupation, which is in every manifestation an act of violence, oppression, and apartheid. The Palestinian people must be accorded the same rights and protections, guaranteed by international law, that are accorded to all other peoples,” said the State of Palestine in its letter.
Source: Palestine News Agency