Ramallah – Ma’an – The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) held a meeting on Thursday, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting opened with a recitation of the Fatiha for the souls of the martyrs of our people and our nation, stressing that the ongoing war of extermination against our people is ongoing with the support and partnership of the United States, and the inability of the international community to curb these escalating crimes against our people in light of the systematic war of destruction, especially in the steadfast Gaza Strip, and in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and the continued policy of killing children, women and civilians, which the occupation is committing these crimes believing that it can succeed in breaking the will to steadfastness and adherence to rights and constants, as our people, with their steadfastness, resistance and confrontation of the occupation and its settler gangs and herds, constitute a continuation of achieving their rig
hts by ending the occupation and colonialism and ensuring the right of return of refugees and the right to self-determination and establishing an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty and Jerusalem as its capital.

The Executive Committee stressed that the ongoing crime, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip, in implementation of the so-called ‘generals’ plan’ aimed at displacing all our people in the north, and implementing policies of killing and liquidation with the aim of passing projects to consolidate occupation and colonialism, will not succeed in the face of the firm adherence to the unity of all Palestinian territories within the framework of the State of Palestine, whether in the Strip, the West Bank, or the capital, Jerusalem, and the rejection of all attempts to talk about the so-called next day, which will be nothing but a Palestinian day within the framework of the responsibility of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our people, and its a
rm, the Palestinian National Authority, which is responsible for all occupied Palestinian territory.

The Executive Committee considered that the Israeli laws targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), including the decision of the so-called ‘Israel Land Authority’ to seize UNRWA headquarters in occupied Jerusalem, are ‘a direct insult to the international community and a disregard for its laws, decisions and institutions, a blatant attack on the United Nations Charter, international norms and agreements, and a challenge to the General Assembly resolutions related to the immunities and protection of international organizations, including UNRWA’s founding resolution No. 302 in accordance with Article (17), the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and Security Council Resolution No. 2730, adopted on May 24, 2024, which obliges states to respect and protect United Nations institutions and humanitarian workers.’

She stressed that UNRWA
is one of the most important international organizations affiliated with the United Nations, and is an integral part of the international system, which consolidates the multilateral system, and that the United Nations is primarily responsible for protecting it and preserving its mandate, which requires it to take deterrent measures that oblige Israel to respect UNRWA’s facilities, mandate and immunity, and to comply with its relevant decisions.

The Executive Committee warned of the danger of the Israeli Knesset approving draft laws that will have serious repercussions on the future of UNRWA’s work in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and will be an entry point for implementing its government’s postponed decisions against UNRWA related to closing its offices and schools in occupied Jerusalem, including the Qalandia Institute, and canceling rental contracts in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, Kafr Aqab, and Shuafat camp, which will have serious repercussions affecting 110,000 Pales
tinian refugees in Jerusalem, and its impact will extend to the humanitarian response in Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip, where UNRWA’s activities constitute the backbone of this response.

She stressed that the Israeli occupation government seeks, through its racist decisions and legislation, to dismantle UNRWA and undermine its mandate granted to it in accordance with relevant General Assembly resolutions, including resolutions 194 (III) and 302 (IV), in an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue, strip the Palestinians of their refugee status, and unilaterally change the criteria for a future political solution.

The decision of the so-called “Israel Land Authority” to seize the land on which the UNRWA headquarters is located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the city of Jerusalem, and to transform the site into a settlement outpost, was considered legally invalid and contradicts the decision of the International Court of Justice and its legal advisory opinion issued on July 19 , 2024
, which confirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem.

She pointed out that UNRWA has a mandate that includes East Jerusalem and has been present there since 1950 under an international mandate, before Israel occupied the territories in 1967, and that Israel does not have sovereignty over them and is obligated as an occupying power to respect UNRWA’s facilities, mandate and immunity in Jerusalem.

It called on the international community to support UNRWA politically and financially, to rise to the challenge of these Israeli decisions and measures, and to intervene immediately to ensure that such destructive steps are not implemented, which target for the first time since the establishment of the United Nations one of its organizations working in the humanitarian field, and to save the prospects of a just peace, and to preserve the integrity of the global legal and political systems, in addition to obligating the occupation authority to respect the immun
ity of UNRWA facilities and provide protection for the agency and Palestinian refugees, and to hold it accountable for its crimes against its workers and its headquarters in the Gaza Strip, and to hold the settlers and occupation soldiers accountable for assaulting UNRWA employees and not respecting their immunity in the West Bank.

In conclusion, the Executive Committee approved an action plan to confront and address the occupation measures to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and to place obstacles before its Commissioner-General, the Agency’s employees, and its educational, health, and relief institutions.

Source: Maan News Agency