RAMALLAH, Saturday, June 29, 2024 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee today pledged to foil all Israeli endeavours to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
During a meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the PLO Executive Committee decided to confront all Israeli measures and pledged that the Palestinian people would remain steadfast on their land and foil all the Israeli occupation’s endeavors to liquidate the Palestinian national cause as well as the ongoing displacement and de-Palestinization schemes.
It asserted commitment to the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights to independence, freedom and return to their homeland and stressed the need to safeguard the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and enable it to carry out its mandate in the five operational areas (the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and Jordan) following Israeli plans to destroy UNRWA and abolish the Palestinian refugees’ right to return based on Resolution 194.
The Committee slammed UNRWA Commissioner for terminating the contracts of four staff members and imposing reprisals on seven others as unjust and called on him to immediately halt these escalatory measures that contradicted understandings previously reached between the Committee and UNRWA.
It decided to swiftly act at the regional and international levels, including reaching out to the UNSC, the UNGA and the ICJ, and keep pushing for the implementation of ICJ rulings for the arrest of Israeli war criminals.
It affirmed a set of decisions and measures to safeguard the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of supporting 9,300 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli custody, particularly thousands who were detained from Gaza and have been subject to killings, forced disappearance and sexual assaults.
The Israeli government has approved five flashpoint settlements in the occupied West Bank and imposed additional punitive measures against the Palestinian leadership and people.
The decisions made Thursday night by the security cabinet include seizing some of the Palestinian limited civilian authority in the so-called "Area B" of the West Bank.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who pushed for the moves, said they came in response to Palestinian legal action against Israel at international courts, and the recent recognition of Palestine's statehood by five European countries.
This came following admission last month by Smotrich that Israel was advancing a plan to annex the West Bank “without the government being accused of annexing it”.
The plan, which involves imposing permanent Israeli rule in the West Bank, was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Smotrich.
In February 2023, Israel transferred large sections of the West Bank's administration from the military to Smotrich, who in addition to being finance minister also serves as a minister in the defence ministry.
Under the new arrangement, Smotrich was given broad authority over civilian issues in the West Bank, in a move experts say amounts to "de jure annexation".
These include powers over unlicensed settler outposts, settlement planning, and construction, and authority to appoint officials in the Civil Administration - Israel's governing body in the West Bank.
The move means a shift from Israeli military governance, which has been the norm since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, to civilian political administration.
K.F.
