PLO officials urge boycott of US embassy opening

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Tayseer Khaled, has urged embassies and diplomatic missions in Israel to boycott the opening ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem, due to take place on 14 May.

The call comes after US ambassador in Tel Aviv, David Friedman, extended invitations to diplomatic missions in to attend the opening ceremony which falls on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba “catastrophe” when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and villages.

Khaled stressed in a press statement that the international community have a choice; either to abide by international law which refuses to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, or the American law of “destructive chaos.”

He emphasised the need to respect UN Security Council resolutions which stipulate that any decision that alters the status of Jerusalem are “null and void.”

Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem in December was met with unanimous condemnation from the international community, with the UN General Assembly voting to reject the decision.

Khaled states that Trump’s flagrant violation of international law on Jerusalem call for decisive action, including the prosecution of Israeli war crimes in the International Criminal Court. He urged Arab countries to sever ties with any country that moves their embassy to occupied Jerusalem.

Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala, and Romania are amongst the countries that have decided to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.

Read: PA threatens to retaliate when US embassy moves to Jerusalem