Palestinian resistance hails Algeria’s anti-Israeli decision

Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have hailed Algeria’s decision to snub an international conference due to its featuring of a representative from the Israeli regime.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem considered Algiers’ measure to represent “the Arab world’s national posturing” against a trend of US-facilitated regional normalization with the occupying regime that started in September 2020, Egypt’s Alshorouk newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the Palestine Information Center.

The decision, he added, showed that the issue of Palestine was “intertwined with the conscience of the Algerian nation, who defend the Palestinian cause on all levels.”

Algerian lawmakers were slated to attend the teleconference that had been convened by the International Parliamentary Network, a body that strives to strengthen contact among the world’s legislative bodies. The MPs, however, withdrew on the second day on their respective country’s orders after a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) joined the conference.

Algerian lawmakers have presented a bill to the country’s parliament aimed at criminalizing rapprochement with the Israeli regime. The bill was drafted after Algerian President Abdel-Majid Tebboune publicly announced on September 20, 2020 that his country was opposed to détente with Tel Aviv.

Bill by Algerian lawmakers looks to criminalize normalization with Israel

A group of Algerian lawmakers submit a bill to the parliament seeking to criminalize the promotion of normalization with the Israeli regime.

Five days before the announcement, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain’s foreign ministers had signed normalization agreements with the Israeli regime at the White House as part of the campaign that former US president Donald Trump’s top advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner had been tasked with leading. The drive followed to see Sudan and Morocco inking similar deals with Tel Aviv.

Nafez Ezam, member of the Islamic Jihad’s Political Bureau, also commented on Algeria’s pro-Palestinian position as witnessed by the lawmakers’ move. He said the North African country’s people and leaders had always been taking such decisions given their sense of responsibility towards Palestine and its cause. The Palestinian cause is a term often used to refer to Palestinians’ resolve towards freedom from Israeli occupation and aggression.

Ezam described “confronting normalization with the Zionist enemy as a religious and moral duty.”

Israel claimed existence in 1948 after occupying huge swathes of regional territory in a Western-backed war. In 1967, it occupied yet more massive expanses of land, including the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in another bout of aggression.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are headquartered in Gaza. The Israeli regime withdrew from the territory in 2005, but has been keeping it under a crippling siege and regular military attacks.

PA urges ‘immediate investigation’ into Israeli crimes

Also on Sunday, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) issued a statement, urging The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an “immediate investigation” into the crimes committed against Palestinians by the Israeli regime and settlers residing in the regime’s illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.

The statement that was issued by the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also urged punishment of the perpetrators of such atrocities.

It underlined escalation in Tel Aviv and the settlers’ continued infringements against Palestinians and their sanctities, saying the violations were aimed at expanding the area of land occupied by the settlements, while chipping away at the Palestinians’ presence on their own territory.

Earlier this month, the ICC issued a ruling verifying its jurisdiction to address the crimes that had been committed in the occupied territories.

The verdict came after tireless efforts on the part of Palestinians to make the tribunal address Israeli violations.

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