NEW YORK, May 15, 2018 (WAFA) - The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) condemned on Monday what it said was “the excessive and disproportionate use of force by Israeli security forces against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators at the Gaza fence with Israel.”
The Israeli army killed more than 100 Palestinians, 59 on Monday alone, since the start of the Great March of Return on March 30. Over 10,000 were also injured, 2700 of them on Monday.
The Committee demanded that “the occupying power abide by its obligation to protect civilians under its control, in accordance with international law, international human rights and humanitarian law,” reiterating the UN Secretary-General’s call for an impartial and independent investigation into the recent events that took place against the background of 50 years of occupation, on the eve of 70 years of the Nakba, and Monday’s transfer of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Committee said the US embassy move “is in flagrant violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 476 (1980), 478 (1980) and 2334 (2016), as well as General Assembly resolutions 181 (II) and A/72/15,” adding that regardless of unilateral actions, “East Jerusalem remains an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and that Jerusalem remains a final status issue to be resolved by negotiations between the parties.”
The Committee urged all sides to de-escalate tensions in Jerusalem and called for an end to the violence. It further stressed the need for “urgent collective efforts leading to the realization of a two-State solution, based on the pre-1967 lines and with East Jerusalem as the capital of the independent State of Palestine, living in peace with its neighbors.”
It also strongly called for “an end to the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip that, since 2007, has collectively punished the Gazan population and brought the Strip to the verge of a total humanitarian collapse.”
M.K.
