Embassy of the State of Palestine

HAGUE, August 3, 2015 - Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr.Riyad Al-Malki Monday, following formal instructions of President Mahmoud Abbas, handed over the file prepared on settlers’ violence against the Palestinian people, to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) headquarters in Hague.

The Australian Labour Party weighed in on the Palestinian Israel issue at its 2015 National Conference reaching a agreement on the subject that may see Australia acknowledging a Palestinian state based on two aspects– no deal formed at the next round of peace talks and a successfully elected Federal Labour Government.

In a letter transmitting the UNRWA Commissioner-General’s Special Report to the General Assembly, the Secretary-General expresses his deep concern over the financial situation confronting the Agency and the humanitarian, political and security consequences that will result if adequate and sustainable financing for 2015 and beyond is not made available immediately.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said:
“In the strongest possible terms, we denounce the deliberate torching and killing of one-and-a-half year-old Palestinian baby Ali Saad Dawabsha and the serious injury of his parents Saad and Reham and his 4-year-old brother Ahmad.

We hold the Israeli Government fully responsible for the brutal assassination of the toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha (1,5 years old) and the injury of his mother and brother. This is a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism. Since 2004, over 11,000 settler attacks have taken place against Palestinian homes, cars, churches, mosques, trees and others with full impunity.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a law that allows the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike:
“Such a law is a politically-motivated mechanism of torture which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and conventions. According to the World Medical Assembly’s Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers of November 1991, ‘forcible feeding is never ethically acceptable. Even if intended to benefit, feeding accompanied by threats, coercion, force or use of physical restraints is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment.’

The Australian Labor Party Conference:

AFFIRMS Labor's support for an enduring and just two-state solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the right of Israel to live
in peace within secure borders internationally recognised and agreed by
the parties, and reflecting the legitimate aspirations of the
Palestinian people to also live in peace and security within their own state.

I congratulate New Zealand on its Presidency of the Security Council and thank you, Honorable Minister for Foreign Affairs Murray McCully, for presiding over this important debate, a reflection of your country's responsible, principled position vis-à-vis this issue and the commitment to uphold your Security Council mandate and contribute to international peace and security.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said: “With its efforts to demolish and ethnically cleanse entire Palestinian villages and communities, its plans to construct more illegal settlement units on stolen Palestinian land, and its deliberate use of live ammunition and the extra-judicial killing of innocent Palestinians, including children, among other flagrant violations of international law, Israel has clearly demonstrated that it is determined to destroy the chances for peace and the two-state solution indefinitely.”

Israel has systematically pursued a policy of forcible transfer of civilian Palestinian populations, which is a crime against humanity under International law, and in the process has replaced the indigenous Palestinian population with foreign settlersthroughout Occupied Palestine. In particular, this policy has drastically affected Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the southern Hebron region. Some of the most dramatic examples of such policies can be seen in the villages of Abu Nawar and Susiya, in Jerusalem and Hebron respectively. Just today, Israeli forces uprooted 400 olive trees from the village of Beit Ula in the Hebron District.