RAMALLAH, April 16, 2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi Monday accused Israel of waging a war on all people of conscience by preventing them from expressing solidarity with the occupied Palestinian people.

She applauded in a statement the members of the “Welcome to Palestine” campaign who “bravely challenged Israeli policies of siege, apartheid and discrimination by attempting to enter Palestine this weekend.”

She said that “such means of popular, nonviolent resistance are inspirational and expose the oppressive and colonialist policies of the Israeli government.”

Ashrawi said that by “preventing international activists from entering Palestine, Israel is not only violating international law and norms of common decency, but it is waging a war on all people of conscience who have adopted peaceful means to challenge the illegality of the occupation and the enslavement of the Palestinian people.“

She said that the Israeli government’s use of excessive force against members of the international movement for solidarity with Palestine is not a new phenomenon.

“Israel has persistently targeted all those who challenge Israel’s use of violence and politics of power against a captive, civilian Palestinian population,” she said.

“The ‘Welcome to Palestine’ participants should have been welcomed as taking a courageous and principled stand affirming our common humanity, rather than being viciously targeted and prevented from visiting Palestine and joining our people in their search for dignity and freedom,” said Ashrawi.

“We call on all countries to protect their nationals from persecution and not to prevent their national airline companies from becoming instruments of Israeli coercion,” she concluded.

M.S.