Statement by Bureau of Committee on Exercise of Inalienable Rights of Palestinian People on Situation in East Jerusalem
The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People issued the following statement today:
The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is alarmed by recent developments and increased tensions in occupied East Jerusalem. The Bureau is particularly concerned by the increasing incursions by Israeli extremists and political leaders under the protection of Israeli occupation forces on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. It is especially worrisome that Government officials are part of these provocations and incitement, in spite of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s stated commitment to respect and not to change the status quo with regard to this sacred site.
These incidents provoke Palestinian and other Muslim worshippers and have repeatedly lead to demonstrations and confrontations, as well as revenge attacks in which Palestinian and Israeli civilians are injured or even killed. The Bureau observes that violence is unacceptable by both parties to the conflict and appeals to all sides to exercise the utmost restraint. Again Palestinian civilians bear the brunt of Israeli military and police action in occupied East Jerusalem, being deprived of their religious right to worship at that foremost holy site, getting instead violently dispersed and tear-gassed. Many have also been detained.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a principal holy site for 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide. Such aggressive and violent incursions by extremist Israeli settlers and religious zealots are considered a desecration of this site, perceived as serious acts of incitement and provoke anger throughout the Islamic Ummah. Such irresponsible actions threaten to spark a religious conflict and plunge the wider region into further instability and violence.
At the same time, Israel, the occupying Power, continues to expand settlements in East Jerusalem in violation of international law and in defiance of the international community’s repeated demands for ending all such illegal acts. This includes the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian lands and properties, as well as the forced displacement of Palestinian families. The most recent announcement by the Israeli Government approving more illegal settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem dates back only to 3 November 2014.
The Bureau wishes to reaffirm that East Jerusalem, including al-Haram al-Sharif, remains an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and is subject to the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, as affirmed by numerous Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Moreover, Israeli actions at al-Haram al-Sharif are in clear violation of its obligations as the occupying Power, under the said Convention, to protect the civilian population under its occupation.
The question of Jerusalem is a crucial final status issue. A sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and with arrangements for the holy sites acceptable to all is a core requirement for the achievement of a just and lasting peace.
The Bureau calls on the Security Council to act without delay to address these alarming developments, which are in defiance of the Council’s resolutions, including 252 (1968), 267 (1969), 271 (1969), 298 (1971), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 672 (1990) and 1073 (1996). The Bureau also calls on the Security Council to continue monitoring violations of the aforementioned resolutions and to act accordingly for their implementation.
The Bureau recalls that 40 years ago, on 13 November 1974, the late Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, gave his historic “olive branch and gun” speech to the twenty-ninth session of the General Assembly, in which he first suggested that Israel and Palestine “might live together in a framework of just peace”. This offer to end the conflict peacefully requires a negotiated and just political solution, based on the relevant United Nations resolutions. Four decades later, this offer for a viable, two-State solution, reinforced by the Madrid and Oslo agreements and the Arab Peace Initiative, remains the only feasible way to put an end to this decades-long conflict. The Bureau stresses the urgency of salvaging the prospects for peace and calls on the parties and the international community as a whole to exert all efforts at this critical juncture towards realizing this long overdue, just solution and achieving peace.