By The World Ambassador
TWA
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates State of Palestine welcomed the adoption by the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its 220th session held today in Paris, of two resolutions on the State of Palestine, unanimously: occupied Palestine, and cultural and educational institutions. Considering them one of the most important tools for preserving the rights of all the Palestinian people, especially in light of the crimes and violations committed by Israel, the illegal occupying authority, especially in the Gaza Strip, and its disregard for international law and international humanitarian law.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to implement the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice and the decision of the General Assembly and other precautionary measures and procedures, and to reject the policy of double standards and international involvement in granting the occupation immunity and preventing accountability for international crimes, including the crime of genocide, says press note.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the adoption of these resolutions remains a witness to the ability of the international community to fulfill its responsibilities towards peoples, their heritage, and their history, which is threatened by Israeli colonialism. It also stressed the importance of these decisions in confronting attempts to forge and deliberately destroy Palestinian historical, heritage and cultural sites, and other violations of world heritage sites and attempts to change the historical and legal identity, including in the occupied city of Jerusalem and its walls and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and its ongoing siege and destruction of the Gaza Strip.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates appreciated the role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in particular, and the positions of sisterly and friendly countries that stand with the unanimous adoption of these decisions. It calls on the international community and UNESCO to take the necessary clear and practical steps to stop Israel, the occupying power, from its crimes.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the failure to implement UNESCO decisions and the provisions of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions encourages and allows the occupation authorities to continue their crimes and works to create conditions for the continuation of violations, killing and direct targeting of civilians and journalists and the destruction of cultural and holy sites.
The resolutions call for halting excavations, works and projects in the occupied city of Jerusalem, especially in and around the Old City and the Cremisan Monastery in the Bethlehem Governorate, and halting all settlement activities, including the construction of the wall and other measures aimed at changing the character and composition of the occupied Palestinian territory, including the social fabric of Palestinian society.
The Foreign Ministry also stressed the need to send an exploratory mission and a representative of the Director-General to the city of Jerusalem to examine the crimes of deliberate Israeli sabotage and submit reports to the competent authorities to prevent the deterioration of the situation before it is too late.
