Ashrawi calls Human Rights Council report "clear, bold and courageous"

A senior member of the PLO Executive Committee has welcomed the conclusions and recommendations of the UN’s Human Rights Council report on Israel. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi described it as “clear, bold and courageous”.

According to the veteran politician, the report hits the mark with its assessment of “illegal Israeli practices” without any equivocation. Furthermore, says Dr. Ashrawi, “The UNHCR provides conclusions and findings along with the necessary requirements for taking practical and mandatory steps, referring to all kinds of Israeli settlements as ‘war crimes’ and including them in the context of the International Criminal Court as their construction violates the Charter of Rome and article 49 of the Geneva Convention.” That, she adds, puts Israel under the penalty of prosecution. “The report also demands the withdrawal of settlers immediately, without any conditions.”

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In a media statement, Dr Ashrawi explained that by rejecting and boycotting the international organisations that are concerned with human rights, Israel places itself outside the law, isolates itself and de-legitimises its unilateral practices which violate international norms, the first of which is its military occupation.

The report concludes that the goal behind the settlers’ violence and terror is to expel the Palestinians from their land, and make way for the expansion of settlements, something it describes as “an explicit form of ethnic cleansing”.