PNC welcomed the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court regarding extending its jurisdiction over the territories of the State of Palestine occupied since 1967.
In a press statement issued this Friday evening by the Speaker of PNC, Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoun, said that the court decision opens the door for the International Criminal Court to initiate measures to hold Israel and its leaders responsible for committing crimes against Palestinian people and their land, indicating that the court's decisions are enforceable by the member states, which are the parties of the Rome Charter that established the International Criminal Court), while these parties are about 90 members.
The court’s decision came despite the pressure exerted on it to decline from doing so, which enabled opening investigations into the lawsuit filed by the State of Palestine against Israel and its crimes, Mr. Al-Za’anoun continued, especially the issue of prisoners, the ongoing crime of settlement, and the related crimes of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, as is happening now in Humsa Al-Foaqa village in the Palestinian Jordan Valley, in addition to the crime of aggression on Gaza Strip, which was subjected and still under an unjust Israeli siege, and accompanying crimes and suffering of Palestinian people Gaza Strip, and amounts to genocide that has affected thousands of children, women and the elderly.
PNC clarified that the court’s decision confirmed that Palestine is a member state in the Rome Charter which established the International Criminal Court, and that the court’s jurisdiction extends to the lands occupied by Israel since 1967, that is, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This would constitute a deterrent to the Israeli occupation leaders from continuing with their crimes against defenseless Palestinian people, especially the daily committed crimes, such as killing, arrest and assault on holy sites.

The crimes of the Israeli occupation authorities in occupied Jerusalem and its sanctuaries and national, historical and archaeological symbols require international accountability and punishment for violating international resolutions related to occupied Jerusalem, including what was decided by UNESCO, PNC said.

In a statement issued today, PNC added, that the occupation authorities' insistence on preventing all renovation works in the holy Mosque, Al-Aqsa, disrupting the entry of required materials necessary for maintenance, and the previous measurements of spaces and buildings inside the holy Mosque, Al-Aqsa, continuing restrictions on the employees of the Islamic Endowments Department in the Mosque The summons and arrests of the guards come in line with completing the implementation of Jerusalem Judaization project and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, and tightening the occupation security and political control over it.

PNC statement explained that these violations come as an extension of Israeli Judaization project under the name of "East Jerusalem City Center Plan" to distort the heart of the historic city of Jerusalem with its neighborhoods, markets, and streets, and change its Arab, Islamic and Christian character, including the Islamic cemeteries in it, which was affected by the occupation tools of aggression and sabotage and violating its sanctity.

The Israeli occupation’s persistence in obliterating the landmarks of the city of Jerusalem, as is happening now with the Palace of the Mufti: Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and the plans to convert it into a Jewish synagogue, and plundering its history, national symbolism and historical value, is a flagrant violation of the Hague Convention and the Geneva Conventions, PNC continued, "UNESCO" organization decisions rejected the claim of Israeli sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem as an occupied Palestinian city.

The statement pointed out that the control of the Palace of the Mufti by force ten years ago, and the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel and the establishment of a settlement on the neighboring land, aims at isolating the north of the Holy City from its Palestinian surroundings by a settlement girdle.

PNC appealed to the free Arab and Islamic nations, their governments, parliaments and institutions, to assume their responsibilities by implementing the political, financial and media decisions to save the city of Jerusalem and its Christian and Islamic sanctities, especially the Holy Mosque, before it is too late, and not to leave it alone confronting the Israeli tools of oppression and Judaization, and to thwart its desperate Israeli attempts to impose its sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem. History and generations to come will never have mercy on anyone who is negligent or excessive in the blessed Arabic and Islamic Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of the two Giblas and the third to the two Holy Mosques, and the Ascent of our honorable Messenger to heaven.

Palestine National Council (PNC) affirmed its support for the Decree of President Mahmoud Abbas, which set the date for holding general legislative and presidential elections, and the elections of Palestine National Council, the supreme legislative authority for the Palestinian people.

In a statement issued by PNC Speaker, Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoon stressed the importance of this Decree at this time, when our people and their cause are facing risks and challenges targeting their legitimate rights, which requires arranging the national internal house, and turning the page of division, to confront those dangers and protect the rights of the Palestinian people of the homeland return and the state with its capital city of Jerusalem.

The elections confirms the adherence of the Palestinian people and their leadership to the democratic option to choose its representatives in its national institutions, foremost of which is Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and fortify this organization to thwart the plots being hatched against the Palestinian people and their national project, PNC Speaker added.

President Mahmoud Abbas issued a Presidential Decree on 15th of Jan. 2021 specifying the dates for holding the successive general elections as follows:

- Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections on 22nd of May 2021.
- Presidential elections for the post of the President of State of Palestine on 31st of July 2021.

Palestine National Council (PNC) called on the High Contracting Parties to the Third Geneva Convention to take the necessary measures and impose effective penalties on the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, prosecute him and bring him to trial, after his refusal to provide vaccination of the Coronavirus to Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons.
In identical messages sent by PNC Speaker, Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoon, to the presidents of selected national parliaments around the world, to the heads of Arab, Islamic, Asian, European, African and Latin parliamentary unions and assemblies, and to the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, tstated that the decision of the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Amir Ohana, two weeks ago, not to provide the Coronavirus vaccine to Palestinian prisoners and detainees violates the two Articles. (13 and 15) of the Third Geneva Convention, which requires the Detaining Power to provide full medical care to the prisoners and prohibits it from committing any act or negligence that endangers the prisoners lives, and this is what happened with (226) Palestinian prisoners who were martyred inside the prisons of the Israeli occupation.
PNC called for activating Articles (129 and 130) of the Third Geneva Convention by calling on the High Contracting Parties to take the necessary actions to impose effective penalties on anyone who commits or orders the commission of any of the violations of this agreement, just as the occupying power "Israel" does against the Palestinian prisoners in its prisons.
In its messages, PNC added that the Israeli procedures against Palestinian prisoners, who are protected persons, is a flagrant violation of their rights, and that the detaining authorities evade from their duties to provide the prisoners with the necessary health care, and it contains racial discrimination towards them, as the vaccination will be limited only to Israeli Prison Authority employees.
PNC pointed to the escalating number of prisoners infected with the Coronavirus, as it reached (196) to date, and it is likely to rise with the continuing low level of protection and preventive measures in general and overcrowding in prisons, in addition to the poor medical services provided to those infected with the Coronavirus in particular, It is also a legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of all Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, including providing them with vaccines, without discrimination.
In its messages, PNC appealed to the heads of parliaments and federations, to take effective action and immediate intervention and pressure the occupying power, in order to provide means of prevention and take all measures of protection against the risk of contracting the Coronavirus.
The Speaker also called for ensuring that prisoners and detainees are given, without submission or exception, the Anti-Coronavirus vaccines, and that international control over the conduct of tests for prisoners and the nature of the vaccinations provided to them, especially we have no confidence in the Israeli prison administration acts.
PNC also called for the Israeli occupation to be obligated to immediately release more than (700) sick Palestinian prisoners, of whom about (340) suffer from chronic diseases, in compliance with what was stated in the first annex of the Third Geneva Convention, of direct repatriation to the homeland of prisoners with a disability, or patients whose condition becomes chronic and a cure is not expected despite treatment.

Palestine National Council (PNC) called on parliaments worldwide to include the Israeli Knesset as a racist, anti-democracy and human rights parliament, after it approved the bill of law on the legalization of outposts on 16th of Dec. 2020.
In identical messages sent by the Speaker Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoon on 21st Dec. 2020 to the heads of parliamentary unions and assemblies around the world, and heads of parliaments in the worldwide, PNC said: The Israeli Knesset and the occupation government are taking advantage of the global public opinion busy with the Coronavirus pandemic and watching the transition in the US Administration, to carry out the final phase towards annexing the Palestinian occupied lands and turning it into part of the state of Israel.
PNC called for exerting pressure on the Israeli Knesset to immediately stop drafting such legislation, as it constitutes a direct and blatant violation of the goals and aims of parliamentary unions and assemblies and the conditions for membership in them, and violates human justice, international treaties and basics of legislation that is supposed to be in harmony with international law.
In letters to reject these laws that constitute a challenge and breach to the resolutions of international legitimacy, especially the recent UN Security Council Resolution No. 2334, PNC called on. The Israeli new laws will prevent the implementation of the internationally agreed two-state solution, which stipulates establishing of the independent state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of 4th of June 1967.
The PNC messages made it clear that the draft law on “regulation of settlement” is nothing but an attempt to legitimize settlement in the most heinous way to formally annexation of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 to Israeli sovereignty, in implementation of the policy of the Israeli rightists ruling since 2015, which believes that regional and international conditions are favorable for resolving the conflict instead of managing it, during the completely biased ruling US Administration, and before the transition of the US Administration.
The draft law obliges the various related Israeli government ministries to provide all settlement outposts with infrastructure services including electricity, roads, water, communications, and transportation, PNC clarified, as well as granting the settlement outposts a legal status that leads to its "legitimization".
The PNC messages clarified that the draft law aims to legitimize the existence of about 130 settlement outposts inhabited by about 10 thousand settlers, the vast majority of them from what so called the terrorist "Youth of the Hills" who are active in terrorizing the Palestinians and carrying out “Pay the Price” crimes, attacking Palestinians and burning their children, as happened with the Dawabsheh family in the countryside of Nablus on 31st of July 2015.
The messages of PNC clarified also that the draft law would entail usurping more Palestinian land in favor of establishing settlements and outposts, legitimizing them, confiscating the right to use and owning more than 8,183 dunums of Palestinian land on which those outposts are based, and retroactively legalizing 3,921 "illegally" constructed homes.

Palestine National Council (PNC) called on the parliaments and federations of the world to support the (UNRWA) Agency, to overcome its
unprecedented financial crisis in its history over the past 70 years.
In identical messages sent by the PNC Speaker, Mr. Saleem Al-Za’anoon, in cooperation with the Refugee Affairs Department of the PLO, to the
heads of unions and parliamentary assemblies in the world, and to a number of heads of parliaments all over the world, clarified that this
stifling financial crisis directly affected UNRWA educational, health and relief services provided to Palestinian refugees, in the areas of
UNRWA operations in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, where Palestinian refugees live in difficult living conditions.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the severity of this crisis has exacerbated, Mr. Al-Za’anoon added, and increased in poverty and
unemployment, and UNRWA has even become threatened with cessation, as these difficult conditions call for greater capabilities to meet the
increasing needs of refugees during this pandemic.
The risk of the financial crisis has extended to the salaries of UNRWA employees, which are estimated at 30 thousand employees, Mr. Al-Za’anoon
continued clarifications, UNRWA is unable to pay the salaries of its employees for the month of December 2020, due to lack of cash, in
addition to the transfer of a financial deficit of more than USD 85 million to the year 2021, in case that UNRWA will not receive additional
funding, which will lead UNRWA again to the same crisis, and will lead the region into uncertainty and instability.
We, in PNC, look to you to address the member states to pressure their governments and urge them to support UNRWA financially, or to provide
additional funding that contributes to saving USD 85 million, to enable UNRWA to pay the salaries of its employees for the month of December and
to overcome its financial crisis, Mr. Al-Za’anoon, UNRWA should be enabled to continue providing its vital and necessary services to
refugees, according to the mandate granted to it by Resolution 302, and to limit the transfer of deficit to the next year, which will result in
increasing the burden of UNRWA financial budget 2021.
He stressed that continuing commitment to support UNRWA contributes to the security and stability of the refugee camps and the region, prevents
the collapse of UNRWA, and at the same time it is a source of hope for millions of Palestinian refugees who are looking to you to support their
just cause to return to their homes in accordance with Resolution 194 .