Dr. Ashrawi Receives Letter from European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton
Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, PLO Executive Committee member, received a letter from Catherine Ashton, European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on March 6. The letter was in response to a correspondence that Dr. Ashrawi sent the High Representative in December which discussed Israel's latest violations of international law which constitute a continuation of a preexisting Israeli policy to intensify and escalate settlement activity and land theft.
In the letter, the High Representative discussed several initiatives in reference to the points Dr. Ashrawi raised and stressed that she will “follow up on the effective implementation of all commitments and decisions taken by the EU and its Member States.” She also stated that “the Union is now actively engaged in the process of ensuring that – in line with international law – all agreements between the State of Israel and the European Union must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The European Union and its Member States have also reiterated their commitment to ensure the continued, full and effective implementation of existing European Union legislation and bilateral agreements applicable to settlement products.”
In response, Dr. Ashrawi welcomed the letter and “called on the EU and its member states to force Israel to end its illegal occupation of Palestine and to employ tangible measures and concrete steps to guarantee accountability in order to prevent Israel from plunging the whole region into volatility and violence.”