An urgent Appeal .. Do not allow the continued sacrifice of international law and its established principles .. We must unite to stop the farce of the Deal of the Century.

Ref: 02/2020

Date: 30 Jan 2020

Original Lang. Arabic

Greetings,

An urgent Appeal .. Do not allow the continued sacrifice of international law and its established principles .. We must unite to stop the farce of the Deal of the Century.

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) greatly appreciates your keenness to ensure that peoples exercise their legitimate rights, and it is honored to convey to you the aspirations and hopes of the Palestinian people to adopt clear and public positions through which you reject the American peace plan, known in the media as the “Deal of the Century”.

The American Deal of the Century, which details were announced on Tuesday, 28 January 2020, carries with it a recipe for committing an international crime against the Palestinian people, a crime in which the United States government and the Israeli occupation authorities deny international law and its stable principles, in particular the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination, the principle of the right of refugees to return to their homes, the principle of the illegality of settlements, and the principle of the inadmissibility of annexing occupied territories.

The announced American-Israeli deal is rejected by the Palestinians, and it can’t be seen as the basis for a fair and comprehensive peace process, quite the opposite, it perpetuates the occupation and the apartheid regime, as it is a war recipe, not only in the occupied Palestinian territories, nor can it constitute an opportunity to relaunch political-diplomatic efforts, and it can’t be a realistic alternative to international legitimacy decisions because in short, it has no moral or legal values upon which international legal decisions are based.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The American-Israeli deal turns its back to the international consensus, which confirms that “Israel” is a war occupation force, not only does this make this American-Israeli deal or plan constitute a an international crime that must be addressed, but for several reasons, including:

1. The proposed deal or plan contradicts the international legitimacy decisions, the most important of which is Security Council Resolution No. 242 and Resolution No. 181 issued by the United Nations General Assembly, and other international decisions, whereby the deal grants only 14% of the occupied Palestinian territories to be the geographical area of the future State of Palestine, knowing that this space is separated and disconnected.
2. The American deal aborts the remaining opportunities to establish the state of Palestine, by facilitating and legitimizing Israeli settlements, and imposing Israeli sovereignty on large parts of Israeli settlements and outposts scattered in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, in contrast to the content of United Nations resolutions, especially Security Council Resolution No. 2234 of December 2016, stating that Israeli settlements are illegal.

• The claim that the American-Israeli deal will grant the Palestinians free access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is just a false claim in contradiction to the current Israeli policies in the Al-Aqsa Mosque based on implementing the temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque campus, and allowing the occupation forces and settlers in occupied Jerusalem to commit attacks against the Palestinians.

1. The American-Israeli plan or deal contradicts the international human rights system, in particular the right of peoples to political and economic determination, which is a necessary condition to ensure individuals enjoy their civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights, and therefore we find that the first article dealing with this right in both International Covenants are exactly the same.
2. The US-Israeli plan or deal seeks to impose further steps aimed at politicizing international humanitarian law, and denying Palestinian civilians the public and private protections that international humanitarian law provides to civilians in the occupied territories.
3. The American-Israeli plan or deal seeks to undermine the mandate granted to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNRWA, which was established as a United Nations agency by resolution of the General Assembly in 1949, especially in light of the increasing demand for services provided by UNRWA to refugee communities, whereas, the current changes made the Palestinian refugees in the greatest need for the agency services, which suffers from a large and frequent deficit in the budget.

• The American-Israeli plan is lying about claiming that it will improve the quality of life for Palestinians in the occupied territories by providing investment opportunities, and the truth that must be understood based on current indicators, the plan will work to continue the unprecedented deterioration in the humanitarian situation, which has become the situation in the Palestinian territories Occupied in general and in the Gaza Strip in particular, as a result of the continued siege and closures imposed on the Gaza Strip, and the systematic destruction of civil facilities and infrastructure, the policy of economic dependency, and the continued seizure of land and water sources and damaging properties in the West Bank.
• The American-Israeli plan clearly aims to disrupt or delay the work of the principle of international accountability of the leaders of the Israeli occupation and its forces, which means encouraging the Israeli occupation forces to commit more crimes described in the court statute, the four Geneva Conventions, especially the Fourth Convention of 1949 and the first additional protocol of 1977.

1. The deal of the century requires recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which represents an applicable threat to peace and security in the region, and a flagrant violation of the basic principles of international order and international legitimacy, as the American plan deliberately ignores international legitimacy decisions, and its insistence to unilaterally declare stripping the Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem, which makes the American administration an active partner in the international crimes committed in Jerusalem, especially settlement, forced displacement and forced land annexation.
2. The American-Israeli plan deprives more than 9 million Palestinian refugees from achieving their right to return to their land and country from which they were forcibly displaced in 1948 and its right to political and economic determination, in clear defiance of the General Assembly and International Security Council resolutions.
3. The American-Israeli plan deprives the realization of the Palestinian people right to resist the occupation by all legitimate means, and deliberately confuses the concept of resisting occupation and terrorism.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The current reality in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the challenges left by Israeli policies and violations, make us closer to the state of war rather than achieving a just and comprehensive peace, and what makes it worse, the successive American measures and plans that identify with the Israeli occupation at the expense of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Therefore, do not allow the continuation of the sacrifice of international law and its stable principles for the benefit of the occupation, colonial and apartheid forces, because your bodies have a unique opportunity to work to remove Palestinian doubts about the effectiveness of international law and its mechanisms of action, by doing the following:

• Working to publicly confront the US-Israeli plan, and give the Palestinian people hope that international human rights law and international humanitarian law are able to ensure that the Palestinian people enjoy their rights.
• Express openly and explicitly the rejection of the US-Israeli plan (the deal of the century), and seek real and meaningful engagement in international and regional efforts based on the importance of achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people in accordance with international legitimacy decisions, and work to spare the region an armed conflict that will reap thousands of innocent victims.
• Work with and next to the permanent international criminal court to ensure that the leaders of the occupation state are held accountable for their crimes against Palestinian civilians, as this is the shortest way to deter the occupation forces and reduce future crimes.
• Work to support the right of the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and resist the Israeli occupation by all legitimate means.

Therefore, we hope that you will adopt these demands and calls, and take all measures to ensure answering the demands and rights of the Palestinian people, who consider your contribution and interventions as a banner in order to ensure that members of the international community fulfill their obligations to international law.