The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) welcomed Thursday the campaign launched by the international human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI), to ban all Israeli settlement products from international markets.
“This has been a longstanding Palestinian demand from the international community,” said PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat. “Rather than a political position, this is a legal obligation on all States. There is no need to reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law while still allowing their products to be traded in international markets. Israel’s colonial settlement enterprise negates the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”
Erekat said as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to continue building illegal colonial-settlements while he takes pride in being the first Israeli PM to build new settlements after the Oslo Agreement, the world should not continue to tolerate this.
“Accountability is the only way to end the occupation and achieve a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.
Marking 50 years for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, AI launched on Wednesday a new campaign calling on states across the world to prohibit settlement goods from their markets and to prevent their companies from operating in settlements or trading in settlement goods.
