The PNC Calls on the Inter-Parliamentary Union to Enlist the Israeli Knesset as a Racist Parliament
The Palestine National Council (PNC) calls, in identical memoranda sent by its speaker Saleem Al-Za’anoon, to eleven regional and international parliamentary unions and associations, on their head, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, to enlist the Israeli parliament as racist, anti-democratic and anti-human rights.
Speaker Al-Za’anoon called on them to take firm measures against the series of laws and legislations initiated by the Israeli Parliament, against the human rights and the rights of the Palestinian people, which are based on racism and hatred, as this parliament is in the process of enacting racist and fascist laws against the Palestinian people.
The National Council called on these unions and associations to pressure the Israeli Knesset to immediately stop the enactment of such legislations as a clear and direct violation of the goals and objectives of the parliamentary unions and associations and their conditions of membership, and to consider such legislations null and void.
The National Council pointed out that since 2014, more than 160 laws and bills have been brought before the Knesset, violating human rights, international treaties and the foundations of fair legislation, which are supposed to be consistent with international law.
The National Council confirmed, through the, that memoranda the extension of the legislation mandate of the Israeli Knesset to the territory of the State of Palestine under occupation is a grave violation of all international legitimacy resolutions, the latest of which are UN Security Council Resolutions 2334 of December 2016 and the violation of all international normative treaties of international humanitarian law, which obliges the authorities on the occupying power to respect the legal regime prevailing over the occupied territory.
The National Council pointed out that the Knesset has become one of the most prominent systems of legitimizing the occupation and its crimes, such as a bill to apply Israeli law to academic institutions in the West Bank settlements as part of a plan to annex it to Israeli sovereignty and a bill to deduct the Palestinian tax revenues on the pretext of supporting the families of prisoners, the murdered and the wounded. The draft law calling for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, the law on the withdrawal of Jerusalemites’ residency, the law of defining the bodies of the murdered, which restricts the handover of the bodies of the murdered to their family unless conditions are met such as not performing funerals and burial services, the law of the arrest of children and sentencing them. In addition to other unfair laws that bluntly violate the principles and rules of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and United Nations resolutions, and put all the crimes of the occupation under the guise of the so-called law.
The National Council also confirmed that the support and backing of Israeli murderers comes from the occupation government and also from Israeli governmental organizations and institutions for their release and provision of monthly salaries to them, which comes in light of the rise of racism and fascism in the Israeli society and support of extremism and terrorism against the Palestinian people.
The National Council notes that the tsunami of racist legislation falls in the context of double standards adopted by the Knesset of the occupying power. For example, after Yoram Shakolnik, who killed Palestinian prisoner Musa Suleiman Abu Sabha on 23/3/1993 who was handcuffed, he received higher monthly salary from the Israeli government and salaries from the National Insurance establishment. After his release, he also received government assistance to open a commercial project. Shakolnick is a model and example of the Israeli government’s encouragement to execute detainees, commit war crimes and provide protection to criminals.
The National Council pointed out that 99% of the Jewish murderers who committed crimes against Palestinians have been released, legally and socially supported, shielded and protected by the Israeli government and extremist organizations in Israel. This confirms that the Israeli occupation and Knesset support organized crime and both act as a shield for it sympathizing with the killers and issuing superficial judgment against them.
The National Council requests that this memorandum to be circulated to member parliaments of international unions and forums and to invite them to join efforts to stop the Israeli Knesset’s Legitimization of the occupation and its crimes.