Erekat calls for UN investigation into execution of Palestinians

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called for allowing the entry of a private investigation committee to probe the field executions carried out by the Israeli authorities against the Palestinian people, and to provide protection for civilians.

During a press conference held yesterday at the Negotiations Affairs Department in Ramallah, Erekat, who holds the position of secretary-general of the PLO’s Executive Committee, said that he asked Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, to immediately investigate the field executions.

“We, in the National Committee, and in accordance with our president’s instructions, have decided to immediately compile information to provide three files related to Prime Minister Netanyahu, his defence minister and the leaders of the security services, and provide the files immediately to the International Criminal Court in order to hold them fully accountable,” he said.

He blamed the members of the Quartet for not coming to Palestine today “to talk with the Palestinian leadership and put an end to this occupation, which constitutes the root of evil, and the policies of the Israeli governments and Netanyahu’s government, which have displaced the [Palestinian] population [and exercised] collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and house demolitions.” Instead, he noted, the Quartet “responded to Netanyahu’s call not to come.”

He noted that those who seek to resolve the political issues through security and military solutions should realise that this will widen the circle of violence and extremism, which are only natural outcomes of Israeli policies. Erekat held Netanyahu’s government fully responsible for this spiral of chaos, violence, extremism and bloodshed.