RAMALLAH, February 21, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli government policies and laws aim at carrying out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official charged on Wednesday.
Commenting on recent Israeli attempts to enact legislation in the service of the military occupation, PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of taking measures that will render the two-state solution impossible.
"In yet another outrageous move, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has presented a bill to amend the ‘Entry into Israel Law’ which allows for the Interior Ministry to revoke the residency status of Palestinian Jerusalemites for ‘breach of loyalty’" or for committing a criminal act’," said Ashrawi in a statement.
According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."
Ashrawi stressed that the Palestinian Jerusalemites are the indigenous people of the land and have lived in their city for centuries. “Their lives should not be dependent on the whims of Israeli policies of occupation and apartheid, and Israel should not be given license to uproot them from their homes to enhance its illegal and extremist settler population,” she said.
“The Israeli government is determined not only to complete the total isolation and annexation of Palestinian Jerusalem, but it is also carrying out the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, creating facts on the ground to render the two-state solution impossible.”
The PLO official also criticized another Israeli proposal that would allow the Israeli Defense Ministry to deduct welfare payments to Palestinian prisoners and their families from custom revenues transferred to the Palestinian government by Israel.
“This measure is illegal and cruel; in accordance with international agreements, the Israeli government is committed to collect customs on behalf of the Palestinian government in return for an exorbitant charge of 3% of the total amount. Since Israel as an occupying power controls all movement in and out of Palestine, such an agreement makes the occupation extremely profitable. The funds should not be at the disposal of the Israeli government who decides how and when to disburse them. Any withholding of funds amounts to outright theft,” said Ashrawi.
“Such proposed legislation builds upon a long series of racist laws, proposals and practices that reflect Israel‘s intent to entrench the military occupation and prolong the suffering of the Palestinian people. Permitting this behavior only deepens Israeli impunity, and signals that Israel is neither subject to international law nor to international humanitarian law.”
Ashrawi called on the international community to send a clear message to Israel that there is a price to be paid for its unlawful unilateralism. “Accountability should include punitive measures and sanctions before Israel succeeds in generating even more violence, extremism and lawlessness," she said.
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