Referendum law sounds death knell of the peace process

The Palestinian Authority has said that the latest law to be approved by the Israeli parliament sounds the death knell of the peace process. The Knesset has approved a law which makes it mandatory for a national referendum before any withdrawal can take place from occupied Jerusalem or the occupied Syrian Golan. Any hope of a just, lasting peace is gone, according to Ramallah. The statement from the PA also pointed out that the Israeli move violates international law as the occupied territories are subjects of UN Resolutions and not simple commodities for Israel to play with as it sees fit.

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The Authority’s Ministry of Information believes that this law imposes a de facto situation which removes any meaning from political efforts and reduces talk of peace to a sick joke. In a press statement, the ministry urged the UN General Assembly and other political entities to live up to their responsibility and declare that the fate of the occupied Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories must be the end of the illegal occupation and the implementation of international law. Human rights and international laws should not be subject to the whims of referenda, popular thought and parliaments acting unilaterally, added the ministry.

The Palestinian Authority called on the US Administration to back-down from its claim that the referendum law is an internal Israeli issue. Furthermore, Ramallah called on Washington to stop keeping in step with what is an extreme right-wing Israeli government. America, claims the PA, should not turn a blind eye to Israel’s crimes and disdain for international law; and it should bring an end to the inherent bias towards Israel so that it can be a truly impartial sponsor of the peace process, even as it is killed off by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.