RAMALLAH )DNA) -The State of Palestine welcomes the positive decision of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the admissibility of its inter-State communication against Israel, the occupying Power, for its systematic violations of the provisions of the Convention as well as Israel’s racist and discriminatory policies against the Palestinian people.
The Committee’s decision affirms that Israel’s systematic discrimination and racism against the Palestinian people are generalized policy and practice that must be eliminated. It also confirms that Israel’s so-called judicial system is complicit in these egregious violations, merely serving as a rubber stamp to Israel’s regimes of apartheid and settlement enterprise.
Israel’s discrimination and racism against the Palestinian people violate the basic tenets of international law and humanity as a whole.
Whereas the fight against racism and discrimination must be universal, the international community must assume its moral and legal obligations to end all forms of discrimination against the Palestinian people. Turning a blind eye to Israel’s pervasive violations is inexcusable.
Israel, the occupying Power, must also cooperate with the Committee and the putative Commission, and facilitate a transparent and effective reporting process into its violations of the Convention.
Generations of Palestinians have endured the intolerable historical, physical, and human anguish of Israel’s discrimination and racism. Today, the rights of the Palestinian people have been vindicated and their hope in justice revived.
