Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh urged the international community to hold Israel accountable for the bloody escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories and for the rise in human rights violations against Palestinians. 

Speaking at the outset of the cabinet weekly meeting, Dr. Shtayyeh called the European Union to recognize the state of Palestine as an independent and sovereign state, to preserve the two-state solution. PM urged the international community to hold Israel, the occupying power, directly accountable for the dangerous and bloody escalations in the occupied Palestinian territories and for the rise in the serious violations of the Palestinians’ human rights.

The Prime Minister called on the international community to exert real pressure on the occupying power to immediately cease the escalation, which concluded in the killing of two young Palestinians near Ramallah today. PM demanded the international community and the European Union to link relations with Israel, as an occupying power, to the extent of its commitment to international law, United Nations resolutions, and human rights principles. Dr. Shtayyeh added, “Any progress in relations between the European Union and the occupying state, without linking it to international law and human rights, would be an undeserved reward, and would encourage Israel to persist in its racist, oppressive policies, and human rights violations”. The Prime Minister therefore called on the countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine, particularly the European Union member states, to recognize the State of Palestine so as to protect the two-state solution and to strengthen Palestinian-European partnership.

The Prime Minister expressed concern over statements by the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and her written commitment circulated to members of the Friends of Israel in the Conservative Party that promises to reassess the location of the British Embassy in Israel, for moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Dr. Shtayyeh stressed that the legal, political and religious status of Jerusalem is nonnegotiable and that such steps will be considered a flagrant violation of International Law and of Britain’s historical responsibility; the country behind the infamous and illegal Balfour Declaration.

The Prime Minister concluded that any change in the status quo in Jerusalem would undermine the two-state solution and will be considered a tacit recognition of the city’s annexation to Israel, which will encourage Israel and extremist settlers to continue their attacks against Palestinians, and against Christian and Islamic holy places in Jerusalem, as well as harming bilateral relations with the State of Palestine, and with the Arab world as whole.