RAMALLAH, Monday, March 29, 2021 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Foreign Ministry today reprimanded three European countries for a negative change in their vote pattern on United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutions related to Palestine.

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Amal Jadu, summoned, at the instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas and the directives of Foreign Minister Riyad Malki. the ambassadors of Bulgaria, Britain and the Czech Republic against the background of the negative change in the pattern of their countries’ voting on decisions related to the Palestinian issue in the Human Rights Council under the second and seventh item on the council’s agenda.

Jadu expressed the Palestinian leadership's shock at this negative change, which she said constitutes a flagrant aggression against the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, the most important of which is the right to self-determination, as well as international law and the international multilateral system.

She indicated that this change reinforces a culture of impunity and avoiding accountability, rather than for these countries to pressure Israel to end its long-term colonial occupation of the Palestinian territory.

Bulgaria was one of six counties that voted against, while Britain and the Czech Republic were among eight countries that abstained on the latest UNHRC vote on Palestine - Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Obligation to Ensure Accountability and Justice, submitted by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - and adopted by a majority of 32 votes in favor.

M.K.