Embassy of the State of Palestine

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview on Thursday that the Palestinians are ready to resume negotiations under the condition that Israel releases the fourth batch of veteran Palestinian prisoners and halts settlement construction for three months.

Shimon Peres says two-state solution was agreed before it was ‘ended’ by Netanyahu

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately destroyed a peace deal that had been reached covertly with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2011.

Some 120 Palestinians serving administrative detention time in Israeli prisons launched open-ended hunger strike on April 24 to protest the conditions of their detention.

Maps, leaflets and posters explain the work of Zochrot – Hebrew for "Remembering". The organisation's mission is to educate Israeli Jews about a history that has been obscured by enmity, propaganda and denial for much of the last 66 years.

Next week, Zochrot, whose activists include Jews and Palestinians, will connect the bitterly contested past with the hi-tech present. Its I-Nakba phone app will allow users to locate any Arab village that was abandoned during the 1948 war on an interactive map, learn about its history (including, in many cases, the Jewish presence that replaced it), and add photos, comments and data.

RAMALLAH, May 5, 2014 – (WAFA) – Member of PLO Executive Committee Hanan ‘Ashrawi stated Monday that the Israeli government and extremist right-wing coalition reveal the true face of the Israeli apartheid regime which is based on discrimination, exclusion and rejection of the other in gross violation of humanitarian and international law.

‘Ashrawi made this statement reacting to Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to enshrine Israel's status as the 'national homeland for the Jewish people' in law.

GAZA, May 5, 2014 (WAFA) – Al-Mezan Center for Human rights said, in a press release on Monday, the Israeli law provides immunity and amnesty to investigators of the Israeli Security General Service to practice torture and ill-treatment against Palestinian prisoners, in violation of prisoners' rights.

From today, the State of Palestine is bound by international human rights standards, having brought into force five treaties, with two others coming into effect in July.

The treaties include the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Optional Protocol to this last convention will come into force in May.

In a meeting on April 30th with the European Union (EU) Representative to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and UNRWA, John Gatt-Rutter, Deputy EU Representative, David Greer, and Head of the Political Section, Hans Grundberg, at the PLO headquarters in Ramallah.
PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi urged the international community, in particular the European Union, to continue upgrading its relations with Palestine, and to recognize the State of Palestine, as well as to curb the Israel’s persistent violations and unilateral measures, particularly its illegal settlement activity, apartheid walls, home demolitions, the revocation of the residency status of thousands of Palestinians living in Jerusalem, the abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the annexation of land in Area C, its continued siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the isolation of Jerusalem from its Palestinian environs.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has warned in a closed-door meeting in Washington that Israel risks becoming an "apartheid state" if US-sponsored efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement fail.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Saeb Erekat issued a statement on end of the nine months negotiations period in which he emphasized the Palestinian stand saying:
“We remained fully committed to this 9 month process, despite an escalation of oppressive Israeli policies. Israel should once and
for all understand that negotiations are a peaceful tool towards achieving peace rather than a smoke screen behind which it can
continue its violations of human rights, further its settlement enterprise and make the two-state solution increasingly impossible.”