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Statement by the Palestinian Leadership
Statement by the Palestinian Leadership
- The Palestinian leadership held a meeting on Sunday 14.12.2014, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, in the city of Ramallah to discuss the issues and challenges confronting the Palestinian people during this critical and exceptional period.
- The leadership affirms that Israel is fully responsible for the assassination of the great martyr Ziad Abu Ein. We extend our gratitude to calls made by various countries and international bodies, including the UN Security Council, for meeting their responsibilities by insisting that the perpetrators be held accountable and forming an international independent commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of Abu Ein’s death, as well as the rejection of all Israeli excuses and misleading attempts to evade responsibility for the crime.
- The Palestinian leadership calls for this commission of inquiry to be formed quickly and international accountability for the assassination of Minister Ziad Abu Ein to be realized through a competent international tribunal. The leadership also emphasizes the need to develop all forms of non-violent popular resistance against the occupation across Palestine in the face of settlement activity and to defend the land as well as national and human rights. The leadership also stresses the importance of strengthening Palestinian unity and cohesion in this critical period, mobilizing all national and popular efforts to protect Jerusalem and the soil of our homeland, and deterring the Israeli policy of Apartheid by steadfastness.
- Therefore, the Palestinian leadership calls for accelerating the formation of all the organizations that would ensure the provision of all the elements of popular unity in order to defend our national destiny, our land and our holy Islamic and Christian sites, and to strengthen nonviolent popular resistance.
- The Palestinian leadership decided to submit the Palestinian – Arab draft resolution for a vote in the Security Council on Wednesday following the upcoming meeting between Arab foreign ministers, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and European Ministers on Tuesday. The resolution demands an end of the Israeli occupation of all territories occupied in 1967 and sets a timeframe to complete the withdrawal of the occupation. The Palestinian – Arab draft resolution should contain all the elements enclosed in the Arab Peace Initiative and our national fixed principles, including the identification of East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and an integral part of our land as well as guaranteeing the right of refugees based on UN General Assembly resolution 194.
- The Palestinian leadership applauds the resolutions passed by European and Latin American parliaments urging their respective governments to officially recognize the State of Palestine.
- In this regard, we applaud the Socialist International resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional recognition of the State of Palestine by all governments led by the socialist parties. These resolutions attest to the overwhelming popular support around the world for the rights of our people and rejection of the colonialist and racist approach and the system of apartheid imposed by the Israeli government in our homeland, which denies our people of their right to freedom and independence.
- The Palestinian leadership also appreciates the initiative in the European Parliament for European recognition of the State of Palestine, and calls on all parliamentary political groups that will vote next Wednesday to finalize a collective decision to support this recognition.
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The leadership expresses its appreciation for Switzerland’s decision to host a meeting on December 17 of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to examine the application of the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This conference will draw attention to Israel’s violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. This conference is also part of growing international efforts to confront Israel’s racial discrimination, including seizure of land, settlement construction and expansion, house demolitions, destruction of infrastructure, looting of natural resources, and violations of the holy sites in Jerusalem.
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The Palestinian leadership asserts that all of these developments prove that the world shares our core goal of ending the occupation and our use of non-violent resistance to accomplish this goal. Therefore, the Palestinian leadership will work to develop the popular struggle and will use all political and diplomatic means to end the occupation of the State of Palestine that is a Non-member State of the United Nations and of all regional and international bodies.
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In this framework, the Palestinian leadership directed the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Government institutions to take all necessary steps to consolidate the status of the State of Palestine on the ground and to re-examine all links with the Occupying Power that are inconsistent with the State of Palestine’s sovereignty over its territory, including all forms of coordination which Israel is exploiting to impede the exercise of sovereignty over our land and deny the rights of our people.
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The Palestinian leadership emphasizes that it will continue to work on the rapid and continuous implementation of Gaza reconstruction program through the national consensus government and its specialized institutions, and calls on all parties to remove obstacles and barriers that could prevent the completion of this program, since the occupation state is seeking to take advantage of all internal differences to disrupt the reconstruction process.
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The leadership also calls on all factions and parties, without exception, to mobilize their efforts to strengthen the cohesion and unity among them across the country and to move seriously towards fulfilling the requirements of achieving national reconciliation without any delay.