RAMALLAH, Thursday, October 13, 2022 (WAFA) – Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh today called for concerted international efforts to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Speaking by video link to a meeting with the Progressive Alliance in Berlin, Premier Shtayyeh called for such efforts to bring the foreign Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories to an end and recognize the State of Palestine as a means to safeguard the two-state solution.

While Israel is bracing for its forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for November 1, Shtayyeh noted that it has been denying the Palestinian people their right to hold elections, including in Jerusalem.

Commenting on Israeli right-wing parties running in the upcoming elections, he said that these parties were becoming more openly racist and extreme and “using the Palestinian blood to prepare for their electoral campaign”.

He stressed the need to raise the cost of the occupation for Israel since Israeli gains profits from the occupation of the Palestinian territories, particularly from Area C, the part of the West Bank under its full administrative and military control, and bars Palestinians from extracting their natural resources in this area.

He called for implementing international law and respecting the UN Charter with regards to Palestine while noting that while Israel’s admission to membership in the United Nations in 1949 was based on two conditions: Israel’s commitment, first, to the partition resolution and the establishment of a Palestinian State, and, second, to Resolutions 181 and 194, including on the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and their compensation, it has not respected any UN resolution nor the UN Charter.

K.F.