Sunday, April 14, 2013

PLO Complaints of Official Canadian-Israeli Meeting in East Jerusalem


 

PLO Complaints of Official Canadian-Israeli Meeting in East Jerusalem


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RAMALLAH, April 13, 2013 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization Friday complained to Canada over a meeting its foreign policy chief has had with an Israeli official in occupied East Jerusalem.

PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat wrote Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird complaining over this meeting with Israeli Justice Minister Tzibi Livni at her East Jerusalem office during his latest visit to the region.

“Your recent meeting with Israeli officials in East Jerusalem has the effect of attempting to legitimize the illegal situation on the ground and may be deemed as aiding, abetting or otherwise assisting illegal Israeli policies,” Erekat said in the letter to Baird.

“As such, Canada’s actions are tantamount to complicity in ongoing Israeli violations of the international laws of war,” he said.

The international community considers East Jerusalem as occupied territory and Israel’s annexation of the city after its occupation in 1967 as illegal under international law.

“It should be noted that diplomatic recognition of the situation created by the attempted annexation of our capital is a flagrant violation of international law,” said Erekat. “It also severely undermines current US efforts (to revive the peace process).”

The PLO official and negotiator reminded Canada that it is “under a clear obligation to respect and ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War; and that a State which knowingly assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act bears responsibility for the violation.”

He wrote, “Israel’s attempted annexation of Occupied East Jerusalem is a blatant breach of international humanitarian law and, more specifically, the laws and customs of war. The occupation and its associated regime have been adjudicated as such by the International Court of Justice; and have been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and by the international community.”

M.S.

 

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