The Secretary of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, issued a statement, Thursday, strongly denouncing what he called a calculated incitement campaign by Israel and the United States, against the Palestinian people, their leadership and their legitimate, internationally-guaranteed rights.
Dr. Erekat said that both the U.S. Administration and Tel Aviv are spearheading this illegal campaign against the unalienable legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including their internationally-guaranteed Right of Return, self-determination, independence and sovereignty on their land.
He added that both Washington and Tel Aviv are also calling for removing the Palestinian leadership, including President Mahmoud Abbas.
“These open campaigns are calculated and programmed by both Israel and the United States, to remove the Palestinian leadership, and replace it,” Erekat said, “They are ignoring International Law and all related United Nations and Security Council resolutions, and are just seeking to extend the life of this colonialist, Apartheid regime by keeping and supporting this illegal occupation.”
Erekat’s statements came in response to U.S. Ambassador in Tel Aviv, who expressed full support not only to Israel, but to its illegal occupation of Palestine, including Jerusalem, and its illegal colonies on Palestinian lands.
“From the moment he assumed his duties as Ambassador, David Friedman acted in support of the illegal annexation of occupied Palestinian lands, and has personally financed and supported colonialist activities,” Erekat said, “Such actions do not only violate International Law and its core foundation; they also grant Israel complete power and immunity to annihilate the Palestinian people, and their existence on their historic land, in addition to assassinating the entire Palestinian cause, the struggle for liberty, independence and justice.”
Furthermore, Dr. Erekat said that the personal attacks against him, and against the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the incitement by Israeli “Defense Minister” Avigdor Liberman, are open calls for assassinations.
Lieberman was attacking Abbas and the Palestinian Authority for paying salaries to Palestinian political prisoners, held by Israel, and supporting their families.
“Palestine continues to pay a heavy price for this illegal occupation, and for Israel’s defiance of International Law – It imprisons the detainees and violates their rights, and the rights of their families,” he said, “Articles 81 and 98 of the Fourth Geneva Convention require the occupation authorities to provide support to the detainees, and those dependent on them.”
The official said that the Palestinian struggle against the colonialist occupation is a legitimate, historic right, and added that all nations under foreign occupations must fight for their liberation and independence.
Furthermore, Erekat said that the Palestinian leadership will not abandon the detainees, and their rights, as its commitment to them is moral, and legal.
Erekat called on the International Community to act and perform its duties, to protect the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights, as stated by all International Resolutions and Treaties, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, and to end fifty years of brutal and illegal occupation, instead of encouraging Israel to escalate its violations and crimes against the Palestinians people.
|Article 81. Parties to the conflict who intern protected persons shall be bound to provide free of charge for their maintenance, and to grant them also the medical attention required by their state of health.
No deduction from the allowances, salaries or credits due to the internees shall be made for the repayment of these costs.
The Detaining Power shall provide for the support of those dependent on the internees, if such dependents are without adequate means of support or are unable to earn a living.|
|Article 82. The Detaining Power shall, as far as possible, accommodate the internees according to their nationality, language and customs. Internees who are nationals of the same country shall not be separated merely because they have different languages.
Throughout the duration of their internment, members of the same family, and in particular parents and children, shall be lodged together in the same place of internment, except when separation of a temporary nature is necessitated for reasons of employment or health or for the purposes of enforcement of the provisions of Chapter IX of the present Section. Internees may request that their children who are left at liberty without parental care shall be interned with them.
Wherever possible, interned members of the same family shall be housed in the same premises and given separate accommodation from other internees, together with facilities for leading a proper family life. – Chapter II. Places of Internment|
|Article 98: All internees shall receive regular allowances, sufficient to enable them to purchase goods and articles, such as tobacco, toilet requisites, etc. Such allowances may take the form of credits or purchase coupons.
Furthermore, internees may receive allowances from the Power to which they owe allegiance, the Protecting Powers, the organizations which may assist them, or their families, as well as the income on their property in accordance with the law of the Detaining Power.
The amount of allowances granted by the Power to which they owe allegiance shall be the same for each category of internees (infirm, sick, pregnant women, etc.) but may not be allocated by that Power or distributed by the Detaining Power on the basis of discriminations between internees which are prohibited by Article 27 of the present Convention.
The Detaining Power shall open a regular account for every internee, to which shall be credited the allowances named in the present Article, the wages earned and the remittances received, together with such sums taken from him as may be available under the legislation in force in the territory in which he is interned.
Internees shall be granted all facilities consistent with the legislation in force in such territory to make remittances to their families and to other dependents. They may draw from their accounts the amounts necessary for their personal expenses, within the limits fixed by the Detaining Power.
They shall at all times be afforded reasonable facilities for consulting and obtaining copies of their accounts. A statement of accounts shall be furnished to the Protecting Power, on request, and shall accompany the internee in case of transfer.| – Chapter VII. Administration and Discipline
