RAMALLAH, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today urged the international community to hold Israel, the occupying power, directly responsible for the dangerous and bloody escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories and for the rise in the serious violations of the Palestinians’ human rights.
Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah, the Prime Minister called on the international community to exert real pressure on the occupying state to immediately stop the escalation, which today included the killing of two young Palestinians near Ramallah, calling on the international community and the European Union to link relations and cooperation and partnership agreements with Israel, as an occupying power, to the extent of its commitment to international law, United Nations resolutions, and human rights principles.
“Any progress in relations between the European Union and the occupying country, without linking it to international law and human rights, would be an undeserved reward, and would encourage Israel to persist in its oppressive and racist policies, and human rights violations,” said the prime minister.
He called on the countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine, particularly the European Union member states, to recognize the State of Palestine so as to protect the two-state solution and to strengthen Palestinian-European partnership.
The Prime Minister also expressed concern over statements by the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and her written commitment, circulated to members of the Friends of Israel in the Conservative Party, to reassess the location of the British Embassy in Israel for the purpose of moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He stressed that the legal, political and religious status of Jerusalem is not subject to assessment and that any such step will be considered a flagrant violation of international law and of the historical responsibility of Britain, the country behind the infamous and illegal Balfour Declaration, which caused and continues to be responsible for the tragedy of the Palestinian people.
Shtayyeh said that any change in the status quo in Jerusalem would undermine the two-state solution and will be considered a tacit recognition of the city’s annexation to Israel, which will encourage the occupying state and the extremist settler groups to continue attacks against the Palestinian people and their Christian and Islamic holy places in Jerusalem, as well as harms bilateral relations with the State of Palestine, and with the Arab and Islamic worlds, and excludes Britain from any future international efforts to bring an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency