RAMALLAH, June 1, 2007 (WAFA)- June 2007 marks the 40-year anniversary of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. On June 9-10, 2007, the people of Palestine and people of the world will join together to say NO! to Israeli occupation, said an International Coordination Network on Palestine (ICNP) press release. It reads:

For 40 years Israel has constructed illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. For 40 years Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, demolished 12,000 Palestinian homes, arrested 650,000 Palestinians, destroyed more than a million Palestinian olive trees, the press release .

Since 2002 the Apartheid Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory aims to encircle the Palestinian population, squeezing Palestinians into truncated Bantustans and cementing Israeli expansionism. The Wall divides farmers from their land, students from their schools, workers from their jobs, and people from their communities. Despite the International Court of Justice ruling it illegal, the Wall now encircles Palestinian towns and cities in the most massive land-grab in 40 years. In its recent war against Lebanon, Israel's unilateralism and militarism have been exposed to the world. Israel continues to establish "facts on the ground" to maintain strategic control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to annex land and get rid of the non-Jewish population.

For 40 years of occupation Israel has continued to deny Palestinians in the occupied territories their internationally guaranteed human rights to food, water, education, livelihood, and health care, imposes a system of checkpoints, closures, military fences, sieges and curfews that deny Palestinians freedom of movement within and between their own communities, and, again in violation of the Geneva Conventions, Israel imposes collective punishments on the entire Palestinian population. Mass arrests have included dozens of democratically elected Palestinian parliamentarians and government ministers. Since the year 2000, Israel's "targeted" killings, often carried out by F-16 bombers or Hellfire missiles have resulted in more than 337 dead Palestinians, 129 of them were not the "target" at all, and many of those killed were children.

In Jerusalem and inside Israel, Palestinians since 1948 face institutionalized discrimination and are denied equality and their full rights as citizens. And Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly exiled from their homeland in the 1947-48 war, their internationally guaranteed right of return.

Thirty years ago, the United Nations recognized, condemned and committed itself to oppose the international crime of apartheid wherever it appeared. Today, 12 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, Israel continues to practice a system of apartheid. We call on the United Nations once again to join with us to identify, condemn and commit ourselves to opposing these heinous crimes. As we were in the past, we are again determined that the perpetrators of that crime be brought to justice.

Throughout its years of occupation, Israel continues to stand in violation of dozens of international laws and scores of UN resolutions. And the international community bears much of the responsibility for those violations. Led by the United States, many governments around the world have actively collaborated in providing support for Israel's occupation and its denial of Palestinian rights. Others have stood mute, or spoken too quietly, failing to mobilize a serious global challenge to Israel's global violations.

(22:00 P) (19:00 GMT)