The National / May 20, 2020
President says authority is absolved of agreements.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared that he no longer intends to abide by security agreements and understandings between Israel, the US and the PLO.
“The Palestine Liberation Organisation and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,” Mr Abbas added.
He spoke in Ramallah at an emergency meeting of Palestinian leadership about Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank as declared in the new coalition government’s agreement.
“The Israeli occupation authority, as of today, has to shoulder all responsibilities and obligations in front of the international community as an occupying power over the territory of the occupied state of Palestine,” Mr Abbas said.
He said those responsibilities included “all its consequences and repercussions based on international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949”.
Mr Abbas said the law “holds the occupying power responsible for the protection of the civilian population under occupation and their property, criminalises collective punishment, bans theft of resources, appropriation and annexation of land, bans forced transfer of the population of the occupied territory and bans transfer of the population of the occupying state to the land it occupies, which all are grave violations and war crimes”.
Earlier in May, the UAE in an emergency Arab League meeting condemned Israel’s plan to annex large areas of the occupied West Bank where its illegal settlements had been built.
The annexation plan was “a dangerous development that would undermine international efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict”, the UAE said in a statement carried by state news agency Wam.
Israel’s action was “unacceptable, violates international law and impedes the peace process”, it said.
