RAMALLAH, February 8, 2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member and Palestinian lawmaker, Hanan Ashrawi, Wednesday said in a statement, that the US-Israel strategic alliance is undermining the role of the Quartet. “Thus, Europe’s understanding of the suffering of the Palestinians and their struggle for freedom and justice must be met with action.”
She said that during a political briefing at the PLO headquarters in Ramallah with Minister Marie-Josée Jacobs of the Luxembourg Ministry of Development, Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and lawmakers and officials from Luxemburg and the Netherlands Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority.
Ashrawi discussed the latest political developments in Palestine as well as issues of mutual concern.
She stressed that 2012 is a decisive year and if no changes take place to the status quo, Israel will have succeeded in destroying the prospects for both peace and an independent, democratic Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital are destroyed indefinitely.
“The main impediment preventing us from developing our own realities remains the occupation, a system of direct control and enslavement where Israel controls every aspect of our lives, land and resources. Israel acts on the basis of power and we are deprived of the protection of international law because of Israeli impunity,” said Ashrawi.
She added, “The Palestinians will continue to seek United Nations membership and the multilateral approach to be recognized globally on a land with definite borders, culture, history, institutions and the right to self-determination.”
“For twenty years as we negotiated, the Israeli government persisted in settlement construction, the expropriation of land, and the building of the apartheid wall while it deprived the Palestinian people of all their rights and freedoms. If peace talks have no relation to reality and lack serious substance and integrity, they will lead nowhere,” said Ashrawi.
According to the statement, both sides discussed courses of current and future cooperative projects between Palestine and Luxembourg, the role of civil society, the gender agenda, and Arab and European women’s networking.
They also reviewed the progress of Palestinian institution and nation-building while recognizing the limits and impediments created by the Israeli occupation, thus requiring positive intervention for Palestinian empowerment and Israeli accountability, it said.
T.R./F.R.
