Embassy of the State of Palestine

UN envoy for Middle East Peace Robert Serry said Saturday that Israeli police refused to grant him and other diplomats permission to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to attend Holy Saturday rituals.
He called on all sides to "respect the right to religious freedom," denouncing the attitude of Israeli police as "unacceptable".

"In this Easter Alert, we choose to focus on Jerusalem and Jerusalemites:
their reality, their plight, and their rights. We have connected with civil society organizations working in Jerusalem, as well as theologians, who have reflected on their longing for Jerusalem. We hope and pray that in this holy week, all Christians all over the world will turn their eyes to Jerusalem and its inhabitants; keep them in their prayers; and work toward opening the eyes, hearts and minds of our occupiers".Kairos Palestine--A Moment of Truth
In other words, we are called to work toward lifting the burden of oppression and occupation, giving Jerusalem the opportunity to unite all peoples of faith in peace with justice.

Dozens of Israeli teenagers face jail terms and blighted career prospects after declaring that they will not join the army because of its "war crimes" in the occupied
The mass act of conscientious objection is set out in a letter signed by around 70 senior secondary pupils, who are refusing to fulfil their legal obligation to enlist when they leave school.

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Christian groups in Jerusalem have launched a campaign condemning Israeli restrictions on freedom of worship in advance of Easter, as some fear a repeat of the police violence the holy city has witnessed in years past.

Produced by the local Palestinian organization Ma'an for Development and Progress in the Christian Quarter with the support of a number of Christian Jerusalem youth groups, a new video calls for "freedom of worship for all" in Jerusalem.

In his first interview about his book on his time as Foreign Minister, Bob Carr says he was frustrated by the influence of the Israeli lobby and makes no apologies for his preference for First Class flights.

On 2 April 2014, the State of Palestine deposited with the Swiss Federal Council its instrument of accession to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the Protection of War Victims and to their Additional Protocol of 8 June 1977 relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts (Protocol I).
Pursuant to Articles 62, respectively 61, 141 and 157 of the four Conventions, the accession of the State of Palestine to the four Conventions and to the Protocol I took effect on 2 April 2014.

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Tuesday that Israel's announcement of plans to build about 700 housing units in East Jerusalem was the proximate cause for the near collapse of its peace talks with the Palestinians.

Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros sparked an interreligious firestorm when he suggested that Israel was “using Scripture” to continue its occupation of Palestinian territory.

"The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians,” Bustros said at the close of a two-week conference in Rome, Italy, “to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands.”

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A group of Christians from East Jerusalem on Sunday said that Israel's restrictions on Palestinian mobility resulted in violations of religious freedoms.

The statement, signed "Palestinian Christian Organizations in Occupied East Jerusalem," complained that Christians are often denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the Easter holidays.

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has called on the world to boycott products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“You have to get ready to start adopting laws in order not to accept or allow anything that comes from settlements, because what comes from an illegal thing is illegal,” Riyad Mansour said during a meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Tuesday.