Middle East Monitor / August 18, 2021
The Permanent Representative of the Palestinian Authority to the UN has said that the failure to hold Israel to account for its crimes has increased its contempt for international law. Ambassador Riyad Mansour made this clear in a message to the UN Secretary General, the General Assembly and the Security Council in which he also mentioned the latest Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and their property.
Mansour noted Israel’s killing of four Palestinian youths in Jenin and its refugee camp on Monday. By holding on to the bodies of two of the martyrs, he said, Israel is guilty of a “flagrant violation” of international law and human rights conventions.
The ambassador called for the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to put an immediate end to Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians. Such “repeated crimes” prompt the PA’s call for the international community to protect the Palestinians.
He stressed the necessity of the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Israeli crimes as a means to achieve justice for the victims of the illegal occupation.
The PA ambassador also referred to the Israeli expulsion policy and destruction of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. More than 700 Palestinians are under threat of being driven from their homes at any moment.
On 10 August, he pointed out, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished a residential building in Silwan and displaced 12 members of a Palestinian family. The day after, the Khader family was obliged by Israel to demolish its own home in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighbourhood, displacing 15 people.
He added that the building of new Jewish settlement units in the occupied West Bank has not slowed, with thousands of units being approved retrospectively.
The besieged Gaza Strip, concluded Mansour, has been subjected to Israeli aerial attacks in several areas recently. Such attacks damage the infrastructure and increase human suffering. To guarantee justice, he said, “The international community must take action against the ongoing Israeli crimes.”
