RAMALLAH, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) today condemned what it described as “Israel‘s summary execution of Palestinians” following the killing of three young Palestinians in one night in the West Bank.

Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, said in a statement that Israel’s “criminal extra-judicial” killing of the three Palestinians and summary executions “are illegal under international law and expose criminal intent on the part of Israeli forces, who continue to act with impunity and abject disregard for the Palestinian people‘s basic right to live.”

Ashrawi said that these acts of criminal violence “come in the context of the unprecedented domination of hate speech and incitement to violence and the deliberate dehumanization of the Palestinian people at the highest levels of Israel‘s political system. The election race in Israel is infested with devaluation of Palestinian lives, including open calls for murder and the use of military power to decimate Palestinians. This includes a recent revolting video by a member of Israel‘s Likud party in which he executes a Palestinian Israeli lawmaker to demonstrate his credentials as a lawmaker.”

She added: “This despicable mainstreaming of racist violence is regrettably met with political rewards by the like-minded worldwide, whose actions amount to complicity in entrenching this culture of hate.”

The PLO official criticized as well the opening of the so-called Hungarian trade office to Israel in Jerusalem, which she said the Palestinian leadership views it in this context.

“It is a shameless act defying international law, including relevant Security Council resolutions, and departing from established European Union policy. The Hungarian government is denigrating the United Nations Charter and allying with an openly racist Israeli counterpart, intent on fueling the conflict and denying the peoples of the region the prospects of a peaceful future,” said Ashrawi.

“At a time when communities around the world mourn the loss of their loved ones who were murdered in cold blood by racist extremists, all responsible states have a duty to confront and reject those who espouse hate and mainstream prejudice of any kind. The European Union has a special duty to condemn and reject these Israeli crimes and hate speech and to clarify its position on the rogue Hungarian policy shift."

M.K.