The PCPA cautions against the escalating spread of racism and expansionism in Palestine by Israeli occupation authorities and the government of Israel which was created against our will in Palestine our historic homeland in 1948 followed by the accumulation of laws procedures policies and arbitrary practices. The PCPA calls for a serious and urgent response at global level to counter them.
The new Basic Law of 2018 which considers Israel as “the nation state of the Jewish people” is the most dangerous constitutional document of its kind in the history of Palestine’s occupation entrenching racism aggression and expansion. This basic law is based on the Zionist Racist ideology. Given the text of this law and its stipulations Israel has implicitly declared itself an Apartheid state. It also encourages illegal settlements across the whole of historic Palestine labelling them a ‘national value’. It denies the existence of the Palestinian people which infringes on their inalienable rights including the right of/to return for all the Palestinian refugees in accordance with United Nations resolution 194.
The PCPA highlights the grave consequences of this Basic Law and its blatant constitutional discrimination against the Palestinian people especially in the territories Israel captured in the Nakba of 1948 which serve as a stark reminder of Israel’s Apartheid practices since its creation. Such practices have been encouraged by the impunity it has enjoyed thus far resulting in these unprecedented acts which require serious examination by the international community at all levels.
The occupation of Palestine by military force which occurred in stages and the displacement of its people was a direct result of the policy of ethnic cleansing which commenced during the Nakba (Catastrophe) in 1948 and the subsequent implementation of additional policies of oppression segregation racial discrimination and deprivation of the indigenous Palestinians including the refusal to allow them to return to their homes over the past 71 years. These oppressive policies have been further entrenched by passing the Nation State bill (2018) which further enshrines the inherent racist character of the state its institutions regulations and practices at the same time as spreading Israeli Apartheid on the ground. This includes the uprooting and forced displacement of Palestinians taking place before the eyes of the world in Palestinian areas marked for the expansion of illegal settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank and the construction of the Apartheid wall coupled with racist settler-only bypass roads. These serious and illegal acts demand a serious response form the international community including the end of mutual cooperation agreements with Apartheid Israel and ending bilateral and multilateral security agreements with the racist state.
The PCPA calls for the adoption of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel which occupies the land of the Palestinian people confiscates it and compels the Palestinians to live in isolated enclaves or Bantustans in their own homeland. It further surrounds them by walls barriers settlements and observation towers coupled with systematic criminal policies including collective punishment extrajudicial killings abuse humiliation and systematic detention without trial for adults and children alike. The immoral siege on Gaza has now entered its 12th year turning the enclave into a prison camp. Respect for the principles of human rights justice and related international instruments requires action not words of condemnation. The peaceful BDS campaign has already brought pressure on Israel evidenced by its campaign to criminalize it and label it an anti-Semitic campaign despite the fact that it is a peaceful campaign to pressure Apartheid Israel to cease its criminal activities. Adhering to the principles of inalienable rights justice and related international covenants requires the adoption of BDS and imposing deterrent sanctions as well as withdrawing investments from this racist state. There is no justification for investment in Apartheid.
The PCPA calls on the United Nations to fulfil its responsibilities in this regard in accordance with its Charter and to re-adopt Resolution No. 3379 of 1975 which declared “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The United Nations General Assembly annulled this in 1991 thus encouraging Israel to escalate its expansionist and racist policies escalated. This recently culminated in the passing of the racist ‘Nation State Bill (2018)’ which defines it as a state only for Jews from anywhere in the world. This contradicts the principles of democracy the rule of law concepts of equality and the people’s rights and even international obligations. Instead it entrenches the racist character of the State and its institutions laws and practices.
The PCPA also calls on all member states of the United Nations to support the implementation of the resolution 2334 of the UN Security Council issued on 23/12/2016 which opposes the settlements considers them illegal and calls for their cessation and removal. Any delay is an encouragement to Israel to continue with its policy of rapid settlement expansion on the ground encouraged by the Nation State Law.
The Conference invites the UN Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations to adopt a resolution to criminalizing Apartheid Israel and imposing sanctions on it. Similar sanctions should be imposed on any state or institution public or private cooperating with the Apartheid state its military and its illegal settlements or which help perpetuate occupation aggression and Apartheid through financial political military or technical support.
The Conference calls on all signatories to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) and all signatories to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973) to fulfil their obligations and to undertake specific measures to end Israeli Apartheid.
The Conference draws attention to the specific responsibility of the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) the African Union (AU) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and all other regional and international bodies with bilateral agreements and forms of cooperation between their member states and Israel end these agreements with immediate effect. It further calls on the European Union (EU) the Organization of American States (OAS) UNASUR Union of South American Nations the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and BRICS (BRICS) to fulfil their moral responsibility of respecting the rights of peoples to freedom human rights and democratic values which Israel violates systematically and therefore should not be treated as a normal state.
The PCPA salutes the growing solidarity and vigilance of the peoples of the world as well as their awareness and the vitality of their collective conscience expressed through their networks movements initiatives and committees through national regional and international efforts to support the Palestinian people facing a decades long occupation under an Apartheid regime including the adoption of the BDS movement other solidarity initiatives. It also calls on them to increase and develop these efforts in various fields in order to keep up with the growing challenges faced by the Palestinian people.
The Conference calls for the formation of a global coalition against the crime of apartheid and all associated violations of human rights practiced by the occupying entity Israel against the Palestinian people. This should be based on the lessons learnt from the fight against Apartheid in South Africa. The PCPA also urges legal and human rights experts in particular to develop frameworks and actions to prosecute Israel as a state and its leaders as individuals for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people including possible war crimes by referring them to international penal systems including the International Criminal Court to hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity.
The Conference affirms that the Palestinian people both in Palestine and abroad will continue to vigorously pursue both in Palestine and abroad the just struggle to restore their inalienable rights using all available means as evidenced by the ongoing Great March of (GMR) and the Palestinian people’s resistance in the face of attempts to uproot them from their land as in the West Bank communities of Khan Al-Ahmar and Um Al-araqib in the Negev. It is necessary for the people and governments around the world to support the struggle and steadfastness of the Palestinian people to regain their right to freedom self-determination and return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes thus finally ending the unwarranted suffering of Palestinians at home and abroad. The question of Palestine remains a fundamental example for the whole world of the struggle for justice human rights and freedom.
The Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad
1 September 2018
