The Palestinian Council in the United States of America said that the decision to close the PLO office in Washington will harm some 600,000 citizens of Palestinian origin.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Palestinian Council said that the closure is yet another American step toward attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause, and not only affects the political situation, but rather affects serious humanitarian aspects related to consular services provided by the organization, including issues of inheritance, land sale and purchase, periodic agencies, etc, which will impact about 600,000 Americans of Palestinian origin, born and living in the United States.
The statement pointed out, according to the PNN, that the current American administration is closely allied with the Israeli far-right government, and continues with accelerated steps to liquidate and end the Palestinian cause, in order to serve the Israeli occupation state and support the existence of the Zionist entity as a regional power, after it has swallowed up the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including the occupied city of Jerusalem.
“This decision was not out of the context of the attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue, but rather complemented it, through the previous attempts by the Trump administration to take the Jerusalem file off the table and recognize it as the capital of the Israeli occupation state, in addition to transferring the US embassy.”
The statement also referred to the efforts of the Trump administration to end the refugees issue by halting support to the UNRWA, and claiming that the number of refugees is less than 40,000 remaining, of those who were expelled from their homes in 1948, and the exclusion of refugee status for their children and grandchildren, totaling six million Palestinian refugees, from UN lists.
“The Trump administration seeks to legitimize the existence of the Israeli colonies in the Palestinian territories, refrains from using the two-state solution when talking about the future of the political process, and consolidating the separation of Gaza from the rest of the 1967 occupied territories, finding alternative negotiating channels.”
The Council said that even cancer patients in the occupied Palestinian territories did not survive American sanctions. The government of Trump announced that health assistance to Jerusalem hospitals, which are the only hospitals in the Palestinian territories that provide primary services for treating cancer patients, including those suffering from breast cancer, and about 5,000 children with different forms of cancer.
The council called on the people of the Arab and Islamic communities, and other advocates of justice, to stand with the struggle of the Palestinian community in the United States, to pressure the government of Donald Trump to back down from its decisions biased toward the occupying state, and which does not contribute to finding a just solution that achieves security, stability and peace in the Middle East.
The council appealed to all American forces and institutions that are supportive of justice, to support the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian Arab people to freedom, self-determination, independence and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the territories occupied in 1967, by interacting and following up on the details of the campaign.
