The Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned Monday three European countries for a change in their vote pattern on United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutions related to Palestine.
In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry stated that Undersecretary Amal Jadu summoned the ambassadors of Bulgaria, Britain and the Czech Republic over the “negative change” in the pattern of their countries’ voting on decisions related to the Palestinian cause.
During the latest UNHRC vote on Palestine, Bulgaria voted against, while Britain and the Czech Republic abstained from voting on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Obligation to Ensure Accountability and Justice, submitted by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Jadu expressed the Palestinian leadership's shock at this negative change, which she said was “flagrant aggression against the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, most important of which is the right to self-determination, as well as international law and the international multilateral system,” reported Wafa news.
She said this change reinforces a culture of impunity and avoiding accountability, rather than pressuring Israel to end its long-term colonial occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, a group of activists for solidarity with the Palestinian people in Germany filed a lawsuit against the German parliament (Bundestag) following its resolution that labels the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) as “racist and anti-Semitic.”
The boycott movement said in a statement Monday that the Bundestag resolution shows the extent of its involvement in covering up Israel’s crimes by trying to silence the activity of a Palestinian movement with a global reach.
Human rights lawyer Ahmed Abed said a group of activists had filed a case against the Bundestag before the Administrative Court in Berlin to defend freedom of expression for all rights activists.
Abed noted that by defining the movement as anti-Semitic, it is labeling all Palestinians in Germany as such, and not only anti-apartheid activists.
The movement is ready to go to the highest court to defend its right and raise its voice against injustice, according to Wafa.
