Excellency,

It is with regret that I must draw your attention to the ongoing misery and hardships being endured by the Palestinian people, who continue to suffer the injustice and indignity of Israel’s illegal foreign occupation.  Tensions are surging as Israel, the occupying Power, presses on with its campaign of repression against Palestinian civilians in tandem with its destructive and gluttonous colonization campaign, both with grave consequences on our people and the prospects for peace. [Read more…]

Excellency,

I regret to inform Your Excellency that conditions in the Occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, are worsening as Israel, the occupying Power, continues its illegal and provocative practices, including in connection with its settlement activities and collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

In grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, notably Article 49 and Article 33, Israel persists with its colonization of the Palestinian land, the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian property, and forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. The cumulative effect is one of increased humanitarian suffering, frustration and hopelessness threatening to further destabilize the already perilous situation on the ground. [Read more…]

Excellency,

It has been one month since our last letter regarding the situation in the occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Regrettably, the situation continues to deteriorate further and the Palestinian people, particularly the children and youth, continue to suffer the gravest of consequences as a result of Israel’s nearly 50-year illegal belligerent foreign military occupation. With each passing day, violation after violation is committed against the entire Palestinian population by Israel, the occupying Power, and the very party with the legal obligation to protect it. These ongoing violations are in stark breach of international law, humanitarian law and human rights law and contrary to international norms and morality. With every violation committed against the Palestinian people by Israeli occupying forces hope dwindles and a peaceful reality becomes more distant. [Read more…]

Excellency,

Tensions continue to escalate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the unrelenting, illegal and repressive practices being carried out by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people it has been holding captive under its nearly five-decade long occupation.

For the Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation, there is never a moment of peace or security.  Besides the suffocating control of nearly every aspect of daily life, precluding any sense of normalcy, the occupying Power seems determined to do all that it can to make their already-difficult living conditions as unbearable as possible. I draw attention, for example, to an incident that occurred yesterday, 15 June 2016, when the occupying Power deliberately cut crucial water supplies to large areas of the occupied West Bank, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water. [Read more…]

Excellency,

Yesterday, Muslims worldwide, including Palestinian Muslims in the Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, marked the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadan.  This year, Ramadan began one day after Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, tragically marked the passage of 49 years since the onset of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian and Arab lands on 5 June 1967.  This somber anniversary, which comes just weeks following the observance of the 68^th year since the 1948 Al-Nakba, is yet another painful reminder of the injustice imposed on the Palestinian people and the continued inability of the international community to fulfill its obligations under the United Nations Charter, international law and relevant resolutions to bring an end to this illegitimate occupation and to justly resolve the question of Palestine in all its aspects and to ensure the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and freedom in their own independent State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, rights which they have for too long been denied.

Clearly, the failure to hold Israel, the occupying Power, accountable for its grave breaches of the law and ongoing brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people has protracted and exacerbated this conflict, with grave consequences on human lives and on the prospects for peace and stability.  This is starkly reflected in the current situation on the ground in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, where Israel’s illegal policies and practices continue to detrimentally affect every aspect of life for the Palestinian civilian population, who continue to endure, inter alia, death, injury, dispossession, displacement and countless other human rights abuses at the hands of a merciless occupying Power. [Read more…]

Excellency,

Yesterday, 15 May 2016, marked the passage of 68 years since Al-Nakba, the tragedy in 1948 in which more than 800,000 Palestinians, 70 percent of our people, were forcibly uprooted and expelled from their homes and lands or fled in fear for their lives after brutal massacres were carried out in over 400 Palestinian towns and villages by Zionist terrorist groups in Mandate Palestine in a clear act of ethnic cleansing. On this solemn occasion, the Palestinian people reflect on their past and their present with sadness and sorrow as they continue to suffer and struggle for the realization of their inalienable human rights, including their right to self-determination. [Read more…]