Category: Local

ANKARA, Friday, April 30, 2021 (WAFA) – The Republic of Turkey said today that the main reason for the delay of the Palestinian elections is that Israel did not respond to the appeal by the Palestinian Authority to hold elections in East Jerusalem and did not allow election campaigns to be carried out there.
In a press statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called on the Israeli government to end its “obstructive stance” and facilitate Palestinian elections.
The statement said Turkey was saddened by the news that the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections – which were set to be held for the first time since 2006 in the country – were postponed.
“We call on the Israeli government to ensure that Palestinian elections are held as soon as possible, respect the provisions of 1995 Oslo II Accord and end obstructive stance,” it read.
“On the other hand, we hope that the decision taken to postpone the elections will not adversely affect the inter-Palestinian reconciliation process, which our country attaches great importance to, and we encourage all Palestinian groups to continue to work towards unity and reconciliation,” the statement read.
The Palestinian leadership said yesterday they will not be able to hold elections with Jerusalem excluded from voting.
“We will not go for the elections without occupied Jerusalem, I want elections in Jerusalem as in the West Bank,” President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised speech.
He said the Israeli side had not given an answer to the Palestinian request for holding the polls in Jerusalem “because there is no Israeli government to take such a decision.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

RAMALLAH, Friday, April 30, 2021 (WAFA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates welcomed today the decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the admissibility of its inter-State communication against Israel, the occupying power, for racist and discriminatory policies against the Palestinian people.
Following is the full statement:
The State of Palestine welcomes the positive decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the admissibility of its inter-State communication against Israel, the occupying Power, for its systematic violations of the provisions of the Convention as well as Israel’s racist and discriminatory policies against the Palestinian people.
The Committee’s decision affirms that Israel’s systematic discrimination and racism against the Palestinian people are generalized policy and practice that must be eliminated. It also confirms that Israel’s so-called judicial system is complicit in these egregious violations, merely serving as a rubber stamp to Israel’s regimes of apartheid and settlement enterprise.
Israel’s discrimination and racism against the Palestinian people violate the basic tenets of international law and humanity as a whole.
Whereas the fight against racism and discrimination must be universal, the international community must assume its moral and legal obligations to end all forms of discrimination against the Palestinian people. Turning a blind eye to Israel’s pervasive violations is inexcusable.
Israel, the occupying Power, must also cooperate with the Committee and the putative Commission, and facilitate a transparent and effective reporting process into its violations of the Convention.
Generations of Palestinians have endured the intolerable historical, physical, and human anguish of Israel’s discrimination and racism. Today, the rights of the Palestinian people have been vindicated and their hope in justice revived.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

RAMALLAH, Thursday, April 29, 2021 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas is going chair a leadership meeting tonight in Ramallah that includes all the political factions to discuss the latest with the elections and whether they should be held or cancelled, according to Fatah official Mahmoud Aloul.
He told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the meeting is going to take a final decision on the legislative elections, planned for May 22, before the start tomorrow of the elections campaigning for the lists.
A total of 36 lists have registered to take part in the elections, the first to be held in Palestine since 2006, competing for the Legislative Council’s 132 seats.
Aloul, who is also deputy to Abbas in the ruling Fatah movement, said that elections in occupied Jerusalem will be the center of the discussions, stressing that going to elections without Jerusalem would be a ‘treason.”
Conducting elections in Jerusalem is not a question of votes and counting them, he said, but rather it is a political issue of sovereignty.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in June 1967 and later annexed by the occupying state, to be the capital of their future independent state that will be established in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
The leadership does not want history and the history of the national movement to say that elections were held without Jerusalem, added the Fatah official, who is heading his party’s list of candidates for the legislative elections.
Israel has so far refused to allow elections to be held in occupied East Jerusalem, as was the case in the previous elections. The Palestinians in general insist that there will be no elections without East Jerusalem, which many believe is going to lead the meeting tonight to either postpone or cancel the elections.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

RAMALLAH, Thursday, April 29, 2021 (WAFA) – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad al-Maliki, called today upon Ireland to press the occupying state of Israel to allow Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem to participate in the upcoming Palestinian elections, as well as to allow the entry of international observers to Palestine.
His call came in a phone call with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney which discussed the importance of holding the Palestinian national elections in all of the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
“The test before us is the legal status of Jerusalem which is unnegotiable, as set forth by international law which considers it [Jerusalem] an occupied territory and [which we consider as] the eternal capital of the State of Palestine,” said al-Maliki.
He stressed that “the decision to hold elections is an irreversible Palestinian decision, consistent with the Palestinian consensus on the importance of holding them and their necessity this time, but on the condition that they take place in East Jerusalem.”
Coveney brief al-Maliki of the ongoing efforts by all actors, including the European Union, to press Israel to abide by its commitments under signed agreements concerning the Palestinian elections.
Both ministers also discussed the situation in Palestine in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts made to provide vaccines to the Palestinian people.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The ruling Fatah party today renewed its call on to the United Nations and the European Union (EU) to put pressure on Israel to permit all eligible Palestinians in East Jerusalem to vote in the Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for May 22, stressing that by barring elections in Jerusalem Israel is blocking Palestinian democracy.

Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazzal criticized in a statement what he called the world’s silence toward Israel’s serious attempts to silence democracy in Jerusalem by barring its Palestinian citizens from participation in the Palestinian legislative elections.

He warned that Israel’s hostile stance toward Palestinian democracy, stemming notably from a racist scheme, will undermine the democratic process Fatah views as necessary for building the foundations of good governance, institution-building and the rule of law.

He added: “The contempt Israel is showing to our peoples’ right to select their representatives must be rejected and condemned by each and every political force which advocates democracy and equality as universally guiding principles.” Nazzal warned that if democracy is aborted in Palestine this will make it more difficult to consolidate or bolster the foundations of democracy in the Arab world.

Likewise, he continued: “once a free and fair election does take place in Palestine we believe this will have a triple down effect on all neighboring countries and beyond.” He cautioned though that Israel is showing a disappointing level of interest in making this happen let alone of its counterproductive measures that do threaten the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem to both voting and running for office as representatives of their constituency.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

The Presidency today welcomed the Human Rights Watch report urging the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli officials “implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid or persecution”.

Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh welcomed in a press release the HRW report as “a powerful testament to the struggle of the people of Palestine under Israel’s belligerent military occupation and its colonial and oppressive policies.”

He added that “this well-documented and solid report reaffirms Israel’s commitment to the crimes of Apartheid and persecution that demands the international community to uphold its responsibilities towards Palestine.”

“It’s our firm belief that justice, based on international legitimacy and resolutions, rather than impunity, is the only way to achieving lasting peace in Palestine, Israel, and the entire region” he stated while pointing that the HRW report “comes at a moment when Israel’s violations have cruelly increased against the Palestinian people, particularly in occupied Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Palestine, as well as against the Palestinian citizens of Israel.”

Abu Rudeineh called on the international community to intervene to stop Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and consider the report recommendations.

“Hence, we call upon all international parties to review this report and look into its recommendations, with many of them being reminders of their legal obligations under international law.”

“It is urgent for the international community to intervene, including by making sure that their states, organizations, and companies are not contributing in any way to the execution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.”

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

The Palestinian government today welcomed the Human Rights Watch report urging the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli officials “implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid or persecution”.

“The Palestinian government welcomes the new report by Human Rights Watch, titled “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” which articulately defines Israeli policies and atrocities against the Palestinian people using the proper legal definition for crimes and criminals,” Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh stated in a press statement.

“The report is a remarkable addition to earlier international reports and judicial verdicts, which asserts the urgent need for the international community to bear its responsibilities, per international law and human rights principles, by holding Israel accountable for its crimes, namely its colonial- occupation and settlements, apartheid, and persecution, as codified in Israeli laws and policies,” he added.

He urged states worldwide to translate their condemnations against the Israeli colonial occupation into practical steps.

“The traditional situation, where many countries worldwide announce their position against occupation without actual sanctions and without revising their relations and agreements with Israel on the different diplomatic, cultural, and trade relations, can and should not continue,” he concluded.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry today welcomed the Human Rights Watch report urging the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli officials “implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid or persecution”.

“The report exposes the nature of Israel’s colonial occupation as an entrenched regime of Jewish supremacy and domination over the Palestinian people, designed to legitimize its settlement enterprise in the occupied territory of the State of Palestine and affecting every facet of Palestinian life,” the ministry said in a press release welcoming the seminal report by Human Rights Watch on Israel’s colonial occupation and its discriminatory and racist policies against the Palestinian people.

“The Ministry considers this detailed affirmation of the reality a test to the international community’s determination to end all forms of discrimination and racism. In this connection, the Ministry reminds States and leaders that the commission of the crime of apartheid constitutes a grave threat to international peace and security and that its prohibition is a peremptory norm of international law.”

It called upon the international community to take “immediate and effective” action to end the Israeli apartheid regime.

“Accordingly, the international community must take immediate and effective action to compel an end to Israel’s apartheid regime enshrined in supremacy of one group over the other. The international community should not sustain nor encourage Israel’s apartheid regime.”

It reiterated that “Israel’s apartheid regime is the main obstacle to the exercise of the right of self-determination and fundamental freedoms by the Palestinian people” while urging relevant international bodies and specialized agencies, including the United Nations Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council, to “adopt effective measures to protect the Palestinian people, including the imposition of sanctions.”

It also called on “the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to expeditiously investigate the crime against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

It concluded by pledging that the Palestinian people would continue its struggle for liberation from colonialism.

“The Palestinian people will continue to oppose and defy the punishing and inhumane reality of apartheid until their rights to self-determination, freedom, independence, and return are fully realized.”

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA