RAMALLAH, April 30, 2018 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi Monday condemned Israel‘s decision to permanently revoke the Jerusalem residency rights of three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a former minister of Jerusalem affairs.

Ashrawi in a statement strongly condemned the decision by Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to permanently revoke the Jerusalem IDs of three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council Muhammad Abu-Teir, Ahmad ‘Attoun and Muhammad Totah, and the former Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu-‘Arafa.

The PLO official noted that, “this illegal and egregious move is anything but new. As confirmed by Human Rights Watch in a report issued last August, ‘between the start of Israel‘s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 and the end of 2016, Israel revoked the status of at least 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem.”

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory, and according to Article 49(1) of 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, said Ashrawi.

“Such a decision comes in the context of Israel‘s calculated and draconian measures and racist and repugnant laws and practices to institutionalize apartheid and to employ a policy of ethnic cleansing with the aim of erasing Palestine and its people from their city of Jerusalem,” she added.

The PLO official maintained that the U.S. administration‘s provocative and disastrous policies on Jerusalem, refugees, borders, and other core issues have emboldened Israel to persist in such unbridled violations with full impunity and a total disdain for international law and the will of the global consensus.

She urged all members of the global community, including the European Union and the United Nations, to do justice to the Palestinian people and curb Israeli lawlessness.

“It is time for the military occupation of Palestine and the grave injustices suffered by the Palestinians to end before the most basic requirements for a just peace and stability are permanently destroyed," the statement concluded.

T.R./M.H.