The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) strongly condemns the large-scale aggression perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and the barbaric bombardment targeting innocent civilian populations. These aggressions are in response to the Palestinian people’s rejection of the plans and practices of extremist Israeli settlers whose agenda is adopted by the Israeli government, and who are seeking to Judaize the city of East Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian State, distort its Arab identity, evict its Palestinian inhabitants, and alter the legal and historical status of the city and its holy sites, including the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first Qiblah and the third of the holy sanctuaries. All of this is being committed in blatant defiance of the global community and the resolutions of international legitimacy.
In this context, ALECSO recalls, among hundreds of international decisions and resolutions, the UNESCO Executive Board decision, dated October 26, 2016, confirming that Jerusalem is an occupied city, as well as Security Council Resolution 2334 of December 23, 2016, which “reaffirmed the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, … condemned all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions, … and expressed grave concern that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines.”
ALECSO also recalls that the Fourth Geneva Convention, which applies to the occupied Palestinian territories, stipulates that “the High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances.” It is, therefore, the duty of all parties to the Convention, especially the Great Powers, by virtue of their international responsibilities and their legal, political and ethical obligations, to be the first defender of the clear provisions of the International Humanitarian Law according to which the occupant does not acquire sovereignty over the territory it occupies. The Law also provides that “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory,…” as well as “the intentional directing of attacks against historic monuments and buildings dedicated to religion” are all serious violations that amount to war crimes.
ALECSO calls on all regional and international organizations, foremost among which is UNESCO, to take urgent and strong action to compel the occupying Power to put an end to its continued violations of international resolutions.
