PA condemns countries for blocking EU statement against US embassy move

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday strongly condemned the governments of Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic for blocking the release of a statement by the European Union (EU) that rejected US plans to officially open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem today.

The statement said that the position of these three states contradicts the EU’s policy and its previous stances towards Jerusalem.

While Israel officially annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, according to the international community the city has remained an intricate part of the occupied Palestinian territory and would be considered the capital of any future Palestinian state.

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The ministry called the actions of the three states a “clear breach of international law, UN resolutions, the Geneva Conventions and human rights principles” that “encourage the Israeli occupation authority to continue violating international law.”

The official ceremony for the relocation of the US embassy in Jerusalem will be held today in the district of Arnona, and coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian people’s Nakba, or “catastrophe” when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land to make way for the formation of Israel.