Foreign Minister Riyad Malki displaying the indictment list against the US. 

THE HAGUE, Wednesday, May 15, 2019 (WAFA) – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Malki submitted today to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague a memorial on the jurisdiction of the ICJ and the admissibility of Palestine‘s application to the Court regarding the United States‘ illegal relocation of its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in clear violation of international law and United Nations resolutions.

Malki said in a statement, “One year after the (US President Donald) Trump administration carried out its provocative and illegal action, the State of Palestine continues to seek justice and accountability through the tools and mechanisms available to law-abiding and respecting States within the international system. The State of Palestine will continue to employ all available legal and diplomatic tools to defend the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people against all illegal acts of aggression and shall not surrender to political bullying and extortion.”

Maliki stressed that the submission of this indictment list to the Prosecutor of the ICJ comes as a continuation of the proceedings initiated by the State of Palestine since 29 September 2018 when it filed an application to initiate action against the United States of America. The court, as a result, set 15 May 2019 as the date to submit these pleadings by the State of Palestine and 15 November 2019 by the US.

The Foreign Minister stressed that the State of Palestine had based its case before the main judicial body of the United Nations on the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations on the Settlement of Disputes, which it acceded to on 22 March 2018, and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which it acceded to on 4 April 2014.

“This move is an exercise by the State of Palestine of its sovereign right as a member state of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and other relevant conventions, which is another legal right that Palestine exercises to defend its rights and interests against illegal actions by the United States, to protect the city of Jerusalem, and to reject all illegal and unilateral measures practiced by the current US administration,” said Malki.

The Foreign Minister also added: “Today also marks the seventy-first anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe). On this solemn day, the Palestinian leadership reaffirms its commitment to achieving justice and securing redress for decades of injustice and brutality exercised against the Palestinian people. Seventy one years ago, the majority of the Palestinian people were uprooted and dispossessed, condemned to a status of misery and alienation. And while the manifestations of Nakba continue the malign intent of the Nakba of erasing the Palestinian identity and denying the Palestinian people‘s natural and political rights has been defeated. The Palestinian people stand tall and proud, supported by the overwhelming majority of the world in their just and noble cause for freedom and return. Today, the Question of Palestine daunts the international rights-based order, serving as a litmus test to the very principles of equality and universality on which it was founded. On the solemn anniversary of the Nakba, the State of Palestine reaffirms its commitment to achieving justice, freedom, and return and expresses its sincere gratitude to all peoples of conscience and advocates of peace who continue to challenge the system and policies of brutality, injustice, and oppression against the Palestinian people.”

M.K.