Cairo (ST) – The Arab League Council condemned the Israeli occupation’s attacks on Syria and Lebanon, and its brutal crimes in the Gaza Strip, calling on the UN Security Council to work to stop them immediately.
In a statement at the conclusion of the extraordinary meeting of the Arab League Council at the level of permanent delegates, held in Cairo at the request of the State of Palestine, the Council affirmed its condemnation of the Israeli aggression that targeted a residential neighbourhood in Damascus two days ago, as an assault on the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and a threat to the security of its citizens and to regional and international peace and security.
The Council also condemned the continued crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians, its targeting of thousands of civilians and the destruction of buildings and civilian facilities there, and other crimes that in their entirety constitute genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Council called on the United States and the countries supporting the Israeli aggression within the Security Council to adopt positions that are consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to oblige Israel to stop its aggression against the Palestinians.
The Council stressed that the Arab countries will not allow the Nakba scenario of 1948 to be repeated and will take the necessary political, diplomatic, legal and economic steps to prevent the undermining of the Palestinian cause, warning that the involvement of any country in the Israeli plans for forced displacement of the Palestinian people makes this country a complicit in the crime.
The Council condemned the ongoing siege on Al-Aqsa Mosque, the escalation of Israeli crimes in the occupied West Bank, the daily storming into dozens of cities and villages, and the systematic destruction of Palestinian refugee camps with the intention of re-displacing them and obliterating their identity.
The Council praised the legal efforts made by South Africa to prosecute Israel before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing the crime of genocide.
The Arab League Council affirmed that the only way to achieve security, stability and peace in the region is through the Palestinian people gaining their freedom and independence by ending the occupation of the land of Palestine, establishing the Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital, enabling this state to exercise full sovereignty over its land, and enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate and inalienable rights.
Najla Khoury