In a Letter to Foreign Diplomats Erekat Calls on International Community to Protect Two-State Solution, Ensure their Bilateral Agreements with Israel don’t Support the Occupation

Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, called upon the international community to “preserve the two-state solution that is fast becoming impracticable”. He also urged all states to “examine their bilateral engagements with Israel to ensure that they are not unwittingly supporting Israel’s occupation”, and renewed the leadership’s call for states that have not already done so to “extend bilateral recognition to the State of Palestine on the 1967 border”.

In a letter dispatched to Foreign Representatives to the Palestinian Authority this Wednesday 18 July, Dr. Erekat expressed the Palestinian leadership’s grave concern regarding a series of recent steps and policy statements, including a provocative statement on Israeli control and jurisdiction of Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound. “This dangerous and inflammatory declaration is illegal and dangerous, threatening the tenets of the international vision for peace in the region as well as undermining the indisputable rights of the Palestinian people to occupied East Jerusalem, our eternal capital”, Dr. Erekat said in the letter.

Referring to the recent findings of the Israeli government-appointed “Levy Commission”, the Chief Negotiator explained, “In conjunction with concerted efforts to unravel the prospects of a two-state solution this report clearly exposes Israel’s determination to further entrench the occupation, continue violating its obligations under international law and, in effect, make the current unacceptable status quo of occupation, aggression, and land grab an irreversible reality”.

Dr. Erekat stressed that the illegality of Israel’s settlement enterprise was indisputable, calling to attention the great weight and depth of international law, including UN Security Council resolutions and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice.

Dr. Erekat pointed out that ongoing Israeli actions and policy proclamations constitute a test of the international community’s will and commitment to peace in the region and concluded by calling on the international community to assume their legal responsibilities towards the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, by putting an end to Israel’s continuous assaults on Palestinian rights and land.