Embassy of the State of Palestine

During his recent visit to Palestine Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "I am here to demonstrate the continued commitment of the United Nations to the Palestinian people's legitimate rights to self-determination and aspirations for statehood and a just and a lasting peace.
A viable Palestinian state is long overdue. There is renewed hope thanks to the commitment of the Palestinian and Israeli leadership. This must be sustained.".

On August 13, 2013 ambassador Mansour sent an identical letter to the Secretary-General, President of the Security Council and President of the General Assembly detailing Israel's continued illegal settlement campaign in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas has asked Palestinian leaders to gather at his headquarters in Ramallah on Tuesday night to welcome veteran prisoners expected to be released by Israel.

Abbas and several leaders will receive the freed prisoners at midnight, the Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh told Ma'an.

Israel has agreed to release 104 prisoners detained since before the 1993 Oslo Accords in stages throughout negotiations with the PLO.. The first group of 26 are expected to be released before peace talks resume in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi met with Sir Simon Gass, Political Director and the UK Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as representatives from the British Consulate and DFID.

In the meeting, Dr. Ashrawi stressed, “The facts on the ground speak for themselves. There will never be a contiguous Palestinian state as long as settlements remain intact. The Palestinian position has been constant: all settlements and outposts are illegal under international law.”

In its latest meeting statement, Palestinian Cabinet warned of the Minister of the Israeli Economy’s call to kill Palestinian prisoners immediately after their arrest which was seen as a clear threat, it also called on the international community and human rights organizations to hold responsible to protect the Palestinian prisoners and compel Israel to the international law and to stop its violations against them and save the lives of the prisoners on hunger strike, especially Jordanian prisoners who have been suffering from critical health conditions.

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced Israeli minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Neftali Bennett’s recent statements regarding Palestinian prisoners – ‘If you catch terrorists, you have to simply kill them.’ Bennett also declared that he has ‘killed lots of Arabs’ in his life and that ‘there’s no problem with that.’

Middle East peace talks have resumed after Israeli and Palestinian negotiators dined in Washington DC with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Mr Kerry said it was a "very, very special" moment, as they broke the traditional Muslim fast for Ramadan.
Earlier, US President Barack Obama welcomed the discussions but cautioned that "hard choices" lay ahead.

The Jerusalemites Campaign strongly condemns Israel’s recent change in its issuing of Jerusalem IDs, which now include expiration dates.
Since the beginning of July, Jerusalem residents who have gone to the Ministry of Interior to receive new IDs have obtained ones valid for only 10 years. Prior to this, IDs had no explicit expirationdate.
The implications of this policy change are significant. Once implemented collectively, all Palestinian Jerusalemites who hold permanent residency status will be obligated to go to the Ministry of Interior to renew their IDs upon such expiration. It can be expected, then,that they will be subjected to the MOI’s Center of Life policy, which requires Palestinians through an exhaustive list of documents to prove Jerusalem as their continuous, uninterrupted center of life. Those who are unable to meet the Ministry’s excessive list of demands will render themselves at threat of having their IDs revoked and, accordingly, their rights to live in Jerusalem stripped.

A recent study Published by Al-Haq “Water For One People Only: Discriminatory Access and ‘Water-Apartheid’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” finds that Israel’s policies and practices in relation to water in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) amount to a system of ‘water-apartheid.’ The threshold for apartheid is met because the inhuman acts, committed against Palestinians through the denial of access to water in the OPT, are carried out systematically in the context of an institutionalised regime with the intent of establishing and maintaining Jewish-Israeli domination over Palestinians as a group.

In response to a recent European Union binding directive banning dealings with Israeli settlements, PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said:

“We welcome this significant move that calls for all EU projects to be conducted within pre-1967 lines and not in East Jerusalem, the West Bank or Golan Heights. This includes the prohibition of funding, cooperation and research funding, among other things, to any individual or institution in the illegal settlements.”