Dr. Erekat on the 10th Anniversary of the ICJ Opinion on the Israeli Wall in Occupied Palestine: “Israel has not been held accountable for its violations and the Palestinian people are suffering the consequences.”

Statement by Dr. Saeb Erekat, PLO Executive Committee Member and head of the Palestinian negotiations team, marking 10 years of the ICJ Opinion on the Wall in Occupied Palestine. Dr. Erekat delivered the statement during a eld visit with diplomats and journalists to the village of Nabi Samuel, Jerusalem District.

Ten years ago, the International Court of Justice delivered an opinion that would be adopted by the UN General Assembly about the Israeli Wall in Occupied Palestine. Its conclusions were clear: e Wall is illegal; it must be dismantled and Palestinians must be compensated. Ten years later, we stand in Nabi Samuel, a Palestinian village surrounded on all sides by Israeli settlements, Walls and fences to say that there is still much to be done. Israel has not been held accountable for its violations and the Palestinian people are suering the consequences.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen the Israeli government use the killing of three Israelis in occupied territory as an excuse to impose collective punishments against the Palestinian people in order to aect Palestinian national reconciliation and to weaken Palestinian national institutions.

The killing of 13 Palestinians, including the brutal assassination of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, as well as the imprisonment of over 700 Palestinians, closure of Palestinian communities and raids against universities, media and private sector institutions are a reminder of the urgent need for international intervention in order to protect the Palestinian people living under occupation from Israeli forces and settlers.

This is an international responsibility. Israel will not act alone to end a protable situation in which it acts with absolute impunity

The Wall is an integral part of the Israeli colonialist enterprise. Marking 10 years of the ICJ Opinion, we remind the international community of its responsibility to ban all Israeli settlement products, divest from all companies involved directly or indirectly in the Israeli occupation and to take all possible measures in order to hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for its daily violations of human rights and international law