RAMALLAH, Friday, February 18, 2022 (WAFA) – Palestine today welcomed the United Nations decision to set up a commission to probe Israeli acts of racial discrimination against the Palestinian people.

The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry issued a press statement welcoming “the decision by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to set up an Ad Hoc Conciliation Commission to report on Israel’s continued and gross violations of the Convention and its provisions.”

“Israel’s discrimination and racism against the Palestinian people violate the basic tenets of international law and humanity as a whole. The fight against racism and discrimination must be universal,” the Ministry added.

It deplored Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the commission and affirmed Palestine’s obligation to facilitate the mission of the commission.

It called for all relevant parties to support the commission’s work and reiterated Palestine’s readiness to cooperate with it.

“The State of Palestine calls on the States Parties to CERD and the international community as a whole to support the work of the Commission and its members and assume their moral and legal obligations to end all forms of discrimination.”

“The State of Palestine stands ready to fully and effectively cooperate with the Commission, in accordance with its obligations and responsibilities, in order to ensure the efficacy of both the Convention and the international legal order.”

Both the State of Palestine and Israel are signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and CERD is the body of independent experts that monitors the implementation by state parties and their compliance with the convention.

Article three of the convention stipulates that “States Parties particularly condemn racial segregation and apartheid and undertake to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of this nature in territories under their jurisdiction.”

The UN said that the commission “will offer its good offices to both the State of Palestine and Israel with a view to resolving the dispute over allegations of racial discrimination amicably.”

It pointed that the commission is composed of five human rights experts, namely Verene Shepherd, Gün Kut, Pansy Tlakula, Chinsung Chung and Michał Balcerzak.

“The appointees are independent of any government or organization and serve in their individual capacities,” it stressed.

K.F.