The Palestinian Authority (PA) is planning to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN to take action against Israel over its nation-state law that was enacted by the Knesset last week PLO secretary-general Saeb Erekat said on Monday.
Erekat who was speaking to reporters in Ramallah said that the Palestinians were currently holding contacts with countries around the world to “inform them about the gravity of this law.”
The PA he said intends to present the ICC with an opinion paper concerning the Israeli law and US president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The PLO official said that the Palestinians would also submit a request to the UN General Assembly to see whether Israel was entitled to keep its membership in the international body in the aftermath of its nation-state law.
Erekat accused the US of serving as Israel’s “full partner” in the new law.
He said that Trump’s peace plan which is also known as the “deal of the century” or the “ultimate deal” has started with the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem.
As part of Trump’s peace plan Erekat affirmed the US administration decided to cut funds to the UNRWA so as to “remove the issue of Palestinian refugees from the negotiating table [with Israel].”
“A question mark hangs over Israel’s membership in the UN” he added. “We have instructed our ambassador to the UN to ask the UN Office of Legal Affairs whether [Trumps’ decisions and the nation-state law] contradicted all what the UN has done to achieve peace stability coexistence and a peaceful settlement.”
The nation-state law “has torpedoed all UN resolutions adopted since 1949 and the issue is no longer one of two states for two peoples” the top PLO official said. “There is no right to self-determination for our people not in the 1948 lands and not in the 1967 lands. The Jew will decide the fate of the Palestinian people and this is an actual implementation of the Balfour Declaration.”
Erekat warned that the new law would “transform the conflict from a political conflict par excellence into a religious conflict par excellence.”
He also lashed out at Trump’s senior advisor Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman saying it was “shameful that they are peace envoys because they believe in an ideology that is based on a national state for the Jewish people.”
Erekat said that the new law also “legitimizes settlements and legalizes ethnic cleansing and is aimed at destroying the two-state solution replacing it with Apartheid and turning the conflict into a religious conflict.”
