RAMALLAH, In addition to the condemnation by the Presidency and the Prime Minister for the forced Israeli closure of seven Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations based in Ramallah earlier today, a wide range of Palestinian official and figures also added their voice of condemnation.
“The occupation forces’ storming of civil work institutions, closing them and confiscating their contents in Ramallah is a dangerous escalation and is an attempt to silence the voice of truth and justice,” tweeted Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“We will appeal to all official international bodies and human rights institutions to intervene immediately to condemn this occupier behavior and place pressure on them to reopen the institutions and to be able to exercise their activities freely,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said this criminal act is intended to prevent these institutions from documenting Israeli human rights violations and crimes in order to protect Israeli war criminals from accountability for their crimes.
It called on the international community, including the United Nations and the Security Council, to reject the campaign of incitement, false accusations and intimidation against Palestinian human rights organizations and to confront the colonial occupation’s attempts to delegitimize and weaken Palestinian civil society.
Minister of Justice Mohammad Shalaldeh said this serious crime is “a blow to the provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law and a slap to the message of the United Nations and all international efforts for human rights in their persons and institutions from human rights defenders, supporters and advocates.”
He said this demands immediate action by the United Nations Secretary-General and Security Council, which is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, and all competent international, regional and national institutions.
President of the Palestinian National Council, the parliament in exile, Rawhi Fattouh, said in a statement that “this attack is a blow to human rights principles, an act of bullying and a desperate attempt to cover up the crimes and daily violations of the occupiers against Palestinian civilians, as well as a dangerous escalation against the Palestinian state and its sovereignty, and to silence the truth and justice that expose the criminal practices of the occupation.”
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency