Ashrawi urges the Australian government to clarify its official position regarding Israeli settlements

PLO Executive Committee member, Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's statements that questioned the illegality of settlements and called for the international community to refrain from labeling settlements illegal under international law, PLO Department of Culture and Information said in a press release Sunday.Ashrawi said, "I would like to remind the Australian government that in accordance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, all settlements are illegal. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 43 of the Hague Regulations, among other international conventions, explicitly state that Israel is in direct violation of international law with its illegal settlement activities.""Moreover, in March 2013, a United Nations Human Rights Council fact-finding mission concluded that Israel has an obligation under international law not to transfer its own population into Palestine. The report explicitly stated that 'the Rome Statute establishes the ICC's jurisdiction over the deportation or transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of parts of its own population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory," Ashrawi added. Dr. Ashrawi stressed, "Such dangerous shifts in Australian foreign policy positions and Australia's willful defiance of international consensus send a clear message to both the international community and to the Palestinians that Australia is more committed to supporting Israel's annexation of Palestinian land than backing any peace resolution that ends the military occupation of Palestine and calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital."Ashrawi strongly urges the government of Australia to clarify its official position regarding settlements and to act in accordance with the global rule of law and international consensus. Ashrawi called on Australia to join the international community in upholding international law and human rights and in observing 2014 as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.