"Civil Society Organizations" Demand an Urgent National Meeting to Confront Recent Occupation Decisions and Convene an Emergency Session of the UN Security Council

SadaNews: The Palestinian Network of Civil Society Organizations condemns the occupation government’s approval yesterday of the decision to cancel the legal status of the occupied Palestinian territories, which falls within the framework of the annexation plan and the acceleration of colonial settlement that is being implemented in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. These decisions come as an extension of the ongoing open war and genocide crimes that the occupying power continues to perpetrate in defiance of international will and international law, effectively applying what the occupying state practices on a daily basis as part of a comprehensive plan targeting the Palestinian presence through expanding settler assaults, land confiscation policies, house demolitions, and ethnic cleansing. The recent decisions are a concrete embodiment of what is being (legislated) only to be framed legally, while its actual translation on the ground has been occurring over the past years.

The network views these decisions with great seriousness, including the withdrawal of powers from the municipalities of Hebron and Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, which includes the transfer of planning powers in the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem to the so-called "civil administration." This carries serious implications that go beyond the effective termination of the Oslo Accords, to mean, among other things, undermining any basis for the minimal requirements for Palestinian existence, thereby enabling the implementation of large-scale displacement plans (with a legal cover). These decisions also allow further aggressive expansion by imposing restrictions on building permits, seizing more lands classified as "state lands" or other names, as well as controlling water sources and agricultural lands, and they grant wider powers to the occupying state to demolish more buildings and facilities.

Given the level and gravity of these decisions which for the first time in 58 years, allow imposing Israeli (sovereignty) over the West Bank, and the cancellation of everything that contradicts this, we demand broad political action and work to stop these procedures with a united Palestinian position that first affirms the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over their land and resources, and their commitment to their legitimate rights guaranteed by UN resolutions, and work on tangible steps by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Authority, and all civil society institutions and components through an urgent national meeting to establish a clear framework and action plan that brings everyone together, considering the Palestinian people are in a national liberation phase in all that it means in terms of establishing the capabilities to realize the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, and to continue legal efforts to criminalize genocide and ethnic cleansing, and to review the role of the Authority as a whole in a way that serves national liberation, including announcing the termination of all forms of relationship with the occupation. The network also calls for convening a meeting of the UN Security Council and human rights organizations and to take urgent action at all levels to stop this unprecedented assault, and announcing a series of counter-decisions in light of the challenges posed by the decision and working to provide the villages and towns with the means of steadfastness and existence.