Dr. Saeb Erekat on his meeting with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

We had a positive meeting where we were able to brief the Secretary General on the latest political developments, our position for a just and lasting peace in the region, as well as on the daily Israeli crimes and violations, including its colonial-settlement enterprise that is not only an obstacle but destroys every possibility for peace. On this point, we emphasized the importance of implementing UNSC Resolution 2334, approved last December, on the illegality of the Israeli settlement enterprise in Occupied Palestine.
 
This visit took place in the context of 50 years since Israel's occupation of Palestine, as well as 70 years since the United Nations decided to divide the land of historic Palestine. It is the obligation of the international community, represented by the United Nations, to fulfill the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, by implementing the resolutions approved by the organization. 

For a just and lasting peace to be achieved, Israel, the occupying power, must end its occupation of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. And it's the obligation of the international community to stop treating Israel as a state above the law. There should be no attempts to equate an occupying power and a people under occupation. 
 
In this sense, we raised the importance of preserving Item 7 of the Human Rights Council, on the impact of Israeli violations on the human rights situation in Palestine, as an important tool to hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations of International Humanitarian Law and UN resolutions.

- Dr. Saeb Erekat was joined by the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the United Nations Dr. Riyad Mansour and by the Deputy Head of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department Ambassador Issa Kassissieh. Dr. Erekat was later joined by Minister Issa Qaraqe, the head of the PLO Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, with a group of relatives of Palestinian political prisoners who submitted a letter asking for the Secretary General’s intervention for the freedom of their relatives.