We, the undersigned from Africa, Asia and Latin America, strongly condemn the Israeli state’s plans for de jure annexation of parts of the West Bank in Occupied Palestine. Our condemnation and this initiative, led by South African civil society, brings us together in our vehement opposition to Israel’s further and criminal denial of Palestinian rights. The Israeli state’s impending action, encouraged by the Trump-Kushner ‘Deal of the Century,’ would violate fundamental principles of international law, including the right to self- determination and the prohibition of the annexation of territory by force.
The increasing severity of Israel’s violations and its impunity obliges us to respond to the call issued by the overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society organizations. Having lived for decades under Israel’s regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid, Palestinians are urging states to take effective measures to stop Israel’s annexation and the violation of their political and human rights.
We endorse the Palestinian call [issued in light of Israel’s pending de jure annexation*] for banning arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel; suspending free trade agreements with Israel; prohibiting trade with illegal Israeli settlements and accountability from individuals and corporate actors complicit in Israel’s occupation and apartheid regime. We commit to working within the framework of our respective national structures to advocate for implementing these measures.
Successive Israeli governments have weaponized the decades-long negotiation process with the Palestinians,to further escalate and entrench the theft of Palestinian land, forcibly displace Palestinian communities, and expand its illegal settlements. This relentless process of de facto annexation, enabled by generous support and subsidies from the U.S. and Western allies, has eroded any possibility for a just and lasting peace based on international law and UN resolutions on the question of Palestine.
In the past, the international community came together to reject and help bring the apartheid regime in South Africa to an end, through effective accountability measures. An equally urgent situation today calls us to once again help end decades of Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people, which the 2017 study of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), among others, recognized as apartheid.
We therefore demand that our governments work together to ensure that the rules-based system of the United Nations prevails over the fanatic and pernicious might-makes-right ideology espoused by the Israeli government and Trump’s White House.
We demand that our governments fulfil their obligations under international law by:
- Adopting a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly which renews the call for, and provides the means to implement, targeted and lawful sanctions on Israel, including a military embargo, as a countermeasure to stop its de facto and de jure annexation of occupied Palestinian territories and its other egregious violations of international law.
- Promoting the activation of the UN Special Committee on Apartheid to address Israel’s regime over the indigenous people of Palestine.
- Guaranteeing the effectiveness and regular updating of the UN database of companies involved in business with Israel’s illegal settlements enterprise.
- Supporting the International Criminal Court’s probe into Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Our long history of struggle for self-determination and national sovereignty, and against colonialism, apartheid and the racist ideologies that were used to justify it, is at the core of our deep solidarity with the Palestinian people in their quest for liberation and self-determination. We cannot allow Israel’s actions, in partnership with the Trump White House, to invalidate or undermine the most basic principles of our global cooperation for world peace and justice, particularly in these critical times.
*Palestinian Civil Society Call for Effective Measures by all States to Stop Israel’s Illegal Annexation of the Occupied West Bank and Grave Violations of Human Rights, May 21 2020. See: http://www.alhaq.org/palestinian-human-rights-organizations-council/16890.html
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Global South Statement against Israel’s apartheid and annexation plan. #StopAnnexation #SanctionsOnApartheid.
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