Dr. Ashrawi on the cancellation of the Africa-Israel Summit
In response to media inquiries, PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said:
“On behalf of the Palestinian leadership and people, we welcome the decision to cancel the Africa-Israel Summit which was supposed to take place next month in Togo’s capital of Lomé.
We extend our deep gratitude to South Africa and to the Arab-African nations, including Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, and the international solidarity groups that courageously advocated for the cancellation of the Summit and refused to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to gain a foothold in the African continent, furthering impunity for the military occupation and Israel’s ongoing unlawful unilateralism and violations of international law.
Such a decision constitutes a principled stance and sends a strong message that the world will not give Israel a free hand to infiltrate the continents of Africa and South America in order to gain legitimacy for its occupation and votes in the United Nations.
It is our hope that this signals a new determination on the part of governments worldwide to hold Israel to account and to end its impunity and its deliberate destruction of the two-state solution and the chances for peace.”