PCHR Condemns Israeli Government’s Meeting in the Old City of Jerusalem

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PCHR Condemns Israeli Government’s Meeting in the Old City of Jerusalem and Its Decision to Allocate Additional Amounts of Money to Create Jewish Demographic Majority in Occupied Jerusalem

In a blatant challenge to the international community, and US President Barack Obama’s statement relating to his vision for the resolution of the Palestinian cause, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu held a government meeting on Sunday, 30 May 2011, near the Tower of David in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, where “a plan to strengthen the status of Jerusalem” as a tourist city, and as a center for scientific, development and industrial research was approved. The plan allocates US$ 100 million for this purpose over the next five years.

This meeting came on the eve of the anniversary of the June 1967 war, and the occupation and annexation of Jerusalem to Israel in violation of the international law. This action is just one of many actions by the Israeli government to ensure Jewish domination and a Jewish majority in the city. This motivation is evident because some of the funded projects will ‘renovate’ historic sites in an effort to highlight a Jewish history at the expense of any other historical narrative.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns holding the meeting of the Israeli government in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, and also the planning and implementation of new projects that are aimed to undermine the historical nature of the city in effort to achieve a Judaization of the city. These actions constitute an insolent provocation for the whole international community. PCHR emphasizes that the failure of the international community to confront the Israeli government’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the permanent impunity granted by successive US administrations, including the administration of President Obama, to these polices undoubtedly encourage Israel to continue its policies at the expense of international law and the realization of international justice for the Palestinian people.

PCHR strongly condemns all Israeli settlement activities and other arbitrary measures in occupied East Jerusalem, and:

1) Confirms that East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian Territory that was occupied by Israel on the 5th of June 1967;

2) Emphasizes that all settlement activities in occupied East Jerusalem constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law;

3) Stresses that all measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities following the occupation of the city, the Israeli Knesset’s decision on 28 June 1967 to apply Israeli law and jurisdiction over the occupied city, its decision on 30 July 1980 which stated “all united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” and the decision to expand the boundaries of the city explicitly violate the international law and United Nations resolutions;

4) All decisions taken, plans, and policies implemented by the Israeli occupation authorities in occupied East Jerusalem will not change the legal status of the city;

5) Measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities in Jerusalem will serve to escalate the volatile situation in the OPT.

Accordingly:

1) PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, jointly or individually, to fulfill their legal and moral obligations to ensure respect for the Convention by Israel in the OPT, according to Article 1 of the Convention. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practiced by international community encourages Israel to act as a State above the law and to perpetrate more violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law, including measures to create a Jewish demographic majority in occupied East Jerusalem.

2) PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to compel the Israeli government to stop all settlement activities in the OPT, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

3) PCHR calls upon the EU and/or Member States to activate Article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement, which sets Israel’s respect for human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the two sides. PCHR appeals to the EU Member States to stop dealing with Israeli goods and commodities, especially those produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT.

Public Document