PLO‘s Hanan Ashrawi (right) with the European Union‘s Deputy Managing Director of Middle East and North Africa Colin Scicluna.

RAMALLAH, April 25, 2017 (WAFA) – Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi Tuesday called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its breach of international law.

Ashrawi provided European Union‘s Deputy Managing Director of Middle East and North Africa Colin Scicluna, whom she met at the PLO headquarters in Ramallah, with an assessment on Israel‘s deliberate and systematic efforts to destroy the chances for peace and stability by means of its stepped-up violations and its deliberate acts of violence and collective punishment, according to a statement issued by Ashrawi’s office.

Both parties discussed international, regional and European developments and their impact on Palestinian realities in terms of pursuing a just peace.

In that context, Ashrawi stressed the importance of multilateral engagement and the need for the international community to hold Israel accountable for its flagrant breach of international law and for refusing to comply with the basic requirements of peace.

“We urge the European Union and other members of the international community to exercise the political will necessary to bring Israel to adhere to international law and conventions and to end the military occupation and the grave injustices suffered by the Palestinian people,” she told her guest.

Ashrawi also reiterated the Palestinian leadership‘s support for the hunger striking prisoners and said, "We stand with all Palestinian prisoners who have courageously adopted hunger strike to expose the inhumanity and illegality of administrative detention, solitary confinement and other cruel and punitive measures adopted by the Israel Prison Service. It is time that Palestinian political prisoners‘ rights are safeguarded once and for all."

In addition, the PLO official met with Slovenian Representative Milko Dolinšek.

The discussion focused on the deterioration of conditions on the ground and political options for the future.

Both parties also reviewed the importance of reconciliation, free and fair elections and the strengthening of the Palestinian political system and institutions, as well as bilateral relations and future cooperation between Palestine and Slovenia.

M.K.