RAMALLAH, June 20, 2018 (WAFA) – Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said on Wednesday that the United States withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council promotes international anarchy.
The US announced on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the Human Rights Council citing its alleged bias against Israel as its reason.
"The (US President Donald) Trump Administration continues its efforts to promote international anarchy by withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, after having withdrawn from UNESCO and the Paris Agreement, among others," said Erekat in a statement. "Their choice has been to side with the Israel‘s colonization of Palestine, rather than the rule of international law and UN resolutions."
He said, "Attempts by the Trump Administration to normalize the illegal Israeli colonial-settlement expansion and its other systematic violations of Palestinian national and human rights, the imposition of an Apartheid regime in Palestine, as well as presenting Israeli crimes against civilians as “self-defense”, have failed and therefore they have decided to withdraw from the Human Rights Council."
The PLO official said the majority of the international community has rejected US attempts to normalize the Israeli occupation by considering Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, by rejecting the condemnation of Israeli settlements, by withdrawing support to the two-state solution and by even taking out the word "occupation" from their political dictionary in reference to the legal status of Palestine.
"The Palestinian leadership will continue to work with the international community and organizations, including the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the Human Rights Council’s facts finding mission on the crimes against Palestinians civilians in Gaza, despite the threats and tactics of intimidation and extortion by the Trump Administration," concluded Erekat.
UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein tweeted following the US decision to withdraw from the Human Rights Council saying: "Disappointing, if not really surprising, news. Given the state of human rights in today‘s world, the US should be stepping up, not stepping back."
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