Embassy of the State of Palestine

Recent inflammatory statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have prompted the call for an International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian citizens of Israel on January 30th 2016. This call by various civil society organizations asks people of conscience globally to act in solidarity with Palestinian-Israelis and to help bring their stories of discrimination and exclusion to the attention of the international community.

“We strongly condemn the vandalization of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. Such an act is the direct result of a hate culture generated by racism and the occupation with impunity, exceptionalism and entitlement. The international community is responsible to protect both Palestinian holy sites and people from such Israeli sectarian attacks and to put an end to such lawlessness in Israel.”

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi made these comments during a meeting with a visiting delegation representing the interfaith Tree of Life Educational Fund at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah.

Dr. Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, strongly condemned the recent Israeli plans to advance its colonization operations throughout the Occupied State of Palestine, which primarily aim to further divide and isolate Occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Dr. Erekat stressed that Israel’s illegal policies are based on the continued demolition of Palestinian homes with the intention to forcibly transfer the Palestinian population and replace them with more Israeli settlers.
It is time to divest from all companies and organizations that are complicit in the Israeli occupation and its settlement enterprise

Mr. Netanyahu is claiming that the killing of any human being by a Jew is not comparable to the killing of a Jew by a non-Jew. This is probably why the terrorists who killed the Dawabsheh family haven’t been arrested just as Abu Khdeir family is still waiting for a ruling over the terrorists who burnt alive their 16 years old son, Mohammad.

According to a report by Peace Now, the Israeli Ministry of Housing is working on plans to construct 55,548 illegal settlement units in the West Bank (including occupied East Jerusalem); this includes plans to build more than 25,000 units on the Palestinian side of the Apartheid Wall; 8,372 units in the E-1 area; two new settlements (GivatEitam, south of Bethlehem and Bitronot/Brosh, northern Jordan Valley); and over 12,000 units in occupied East Jerusalem and the Old City, among other illegal settlement projects.

Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah, received, on Sunday December 13, at his office in Ramallah, the Australian minister for Industry, Science and Innovation Hon Christopher Payne MP, and briefed him on the latest political and economic developments.

At its 2nd plenary meeting, on 18 September 2015, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the General Committee, decided to include in the agenda of its seventieth session the item entitled “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources” and to allocate it to the Second Committee.
The Committee adopted draft resolution A/C.2/70/L.21 by a recorded vote of 156 to 7, with 9 abstentions.

The conviction by an Israeli Military Court of Comrade Khalida Jarrar, a democratically-elected member of our parliament and the High National Committee for the International Criminal Court (ICC), is a reflection of the daily oppression and Apartheid policies imposed by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian people.

Demolishing homes is one of the most immoral policies conducted by the Israeli occupation. Forcible displacement of Palestinians is part of the ongoing Nakba aimed at displacing our people and replacing them with foreign settlers. The home demolitions in Jerusalem have reached such an intolerable degree that Palestinians are virtually prevented from building on their own land, while the occupation authorities continue to justify the systematic collective punishment of our people.

The Prime Minister of Palestine, H.E Dr Rami Al Hamdallah, received the Australian representative to the Palestinian Authority, Mr Tom Wilson.
In the meeting, Dr Hamdallah has thanked Mr Wilson for his efforts to promote bi lateral relations between Australia and Palestine and wished him a successful personal and professional life.