CAIRO: The Arab League urged the UN Security Council and the international community to assume their responsibilities and exert pressure on Israel to halt its aggression against the Palestinian people and to ensure that it provides all humanitarian assistance needed by the people in the Gaza Strip, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Saturday.
In a statement released on Saturday, on the 107th year since the Balfour Declaration, the Arab League urged Britain and all the other nations that did not recognize the Palestinian state to take this step in support of peace in accordance with the two-state solution.
The statement emphasized that the only way to achieve a just, comprehensive and lasting peace is to end the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967, and to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
“The Balfour Declaration continues to be a profound wound in the human conscience due to the Nakba that the Palestinian people have experienced and the ongoing deprivation of their legitimate and inalienable rights to freedom and independence. This refers to the Israeli occupation’s violations and practices, settlement and Judaization, annexation and siege, the destruction of the Palestinian people’s livelihoods, and the desecration of their religious shrines,” the Arab League maintained in its statement.
The Arab League emphasized that the Israeli occupation’s continued crimes and violations are a reflection of the international community’s inability to fulfil its obligations and assume its responsibilities in resisting aggression and occupation, protecting the Palestinian people, and asking the occupation to comply with the principles of international law and relevant resolutions in a manner that terminates the occupation and allows the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination in an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Arab League stated that Israel continues to insist on expanding the area of its aggression, to include Lebanon and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, despite the imminent danger of a regional war.
Moreover, the Israeli Knesset’s decision to ban UNRWA’s work in the occupied Palestinian territories is an additional flagrant violation of the UN Charter, of the international will, and of all human values, the Arab League stated.
