Fatah movement calls for anti-Israel protest across Palestine

Palestinian Fatah movement has called on people across Palestine to participate in a protest against the Israeli regime.

The movement released a statement on Saturday, calling on Palestinians to participate in the event to back the Palestinian leadership in its efforts to table another draft resolution on an independent Palestinian state to the UN Security Council.

The statement further noted that the protest against Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories will be held in the centers of Palestinian districts at 12:00 noon local time on January 26. It said the demonstration will call for boycotting Israeli products.

Palestine independent statehood

Palestine plans to submit another draft resolution on the creation of an independent state to the Council, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia has said.

“The discussion of a new draft resolution is just beginning. It is hard to say when it [the discussion] may end; in a month or two. That definitely will not happen in the next two weeks but certainly will happen in the near future,” Interfax quoted Fayed Mustafa as saying on January 15.

The decision is closely related to the outcome of a Council meeting on December 30, 2014, when the body failed to pass a resolution requiring Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories captured in 1967.

“If our efforts come to an impasse and the UN Security Council’s door closes to us, then we will revise the entire relationship with Israel and the role of the Palestinian autonomy. We will not be putting up with this situation forever. Israel will feel that it has to pay a price for its occupation unless its policy changes,” the ambassador underscored.

During a meeting with Arab foreign ministers in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on January 15, the Arab League said in a statement it will seek to table another resolution at the Council on ending Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

The bloc said that several Arab states are tasked with undertaking “the necessary communications and consultations to submit a new Arab proposal to the Security Council.”

Palestine ICC membership

Palestinians also recently signed the documents necessary for Palestine to join 20 international organizations, including the International Criminal Court (ICC). Palestine is set to become a member of the ICC as of April 1.

In a statement on January 16, the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said she would conduct the examination in “full independence and impartiality” into the Tel Aviv regime’s war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Hague-based ICC’s decision to start the probe came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas requested ICC membership. The request saw strong opposition from the Israeli regime and its staunch supporter, the United States.

The Palestinian Authority also said it will fully cooperate with the ICC after the body’s announcement of an initial investigation into Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians.

Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority Riad al-Malki on January 17 hailed the move as “historic,” adding that Palestinians would provide the ICC with “whatever information, documents and testimonies it needs to prove that there were crimes committed against the Palestinian people.”

He made the comments in an interview with the Palestinian newspaper, al-Ayyam.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has welcomed the ICC decision for the war crimes investigation.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, on January 17 expressed the group’s appreciation for the move.

“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction,” he said in a statement, adding, “We are ready to provide (the Court) with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people.”

Israel has denounced the ICC decision as ‘hypocrisy,’ while the US Department of State said it is a “tragic irony” that Israel “is now being scrutinized by the ICC.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he rejects the “scandalous” ICC decision to launch the probe, claiming that the Court has no jurisdiction over Palestine as it is not a state.

Israeli crimes, illegal settlements

During the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which ended in August 2014 through an Egypt-brokered truce, more than 2,140 Palestinians, including 577 children were killed. About 1,500 buildings and structures were demolished during the military aggression.

Gazan officials have warned that more people could die as tens of thousands are still displaced in the wake of the recent Israeli war, waiting for money for the reconstruction of their houses.

Israel has launched three wars on Palestinians in Gaza since 2008. During the latest military aggression against Gaza in summer 2014, Tel Aviv used advanced weapons to kill Palestinians and destroy their homes.

Palestinians also want the ICC to investigate Israel’s illegal construction activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.

The ICC has the legal authority to prosecute individuals for war crimes, an issue that Israelis have been repeatedly accused of over the massacre of Palestinians.

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