Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv Saturday evening to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to begin annexing parts of the West Bank next month.
Police initially sought to block the rally but backtracked Friday after meeting with organizers, who urged participants to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Dozens of officers were securing the demonstration after police said attendance would be capped at 2,000, though the Haaretz daily put turnout at 6,000 people in what appeared to be the largest protest in the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The demonstration was organized by the left-wing Meretz party and the communist Hadash faction of the majority-Arab Joint List, along with several other left-wing rights groups.
MK Nitzan Horowitz, the head of Meretz, told the crowd that annexation would be a “war crime” and would cost Israel millions as the economy is already reeling due to the pandemic.
“We cannot replace an occupation of dozens of years with an apartheid that will last forever,” shouted a hoarse Horowitz. “Yes to two states for two peoples, no to violence and bloodshed,” he continued. “No to annexation, yes to peace.”
The coalition deal signed between Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s Blue and White allows the prime minister to begin moving forward with annexation on July 1. The parts of the West Bank that Israel will extend sovereignty over are those earmarked for it under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
The Palestinian Authority told the International Criminal Court on Thursday that am Israeli annexation of the parts of the West Bank would annul the Oslo Accords and all other bilateral agreements between Ramallah and Jerusalem.
The statement, issued in writing by PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, came after three ICC judges last week asked for a clarification of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech last month in which he declared all agreements with Israel null and void and that the PA is no longer bound by any of these agreements.
The judges — who make up the pretrial chamber tasked with ruling on whether the court has jurisdiction to open a criminal investigation into suspected war crimes committed on Palestinian territories — had given Ramallah a June 10 deadline to respond to their query.
In response to the request, al-Malki re-released a statement Abbas had originally made in May, declaring that “if Israel proceeds with annexation, a material breach of the agreements between the two sides, then it will have annulled any remnants of the Oslo Accords and all other agreements concluded between them.”
On April 30, ICC prosecutor Bensouda reiterated her position that Palestine is a state for the purposes of transferring criminal jurisdiction over its territory to The Hague.
It is now up to the pretrial chamber to rule on the matter. The three judges of that chamber — Péter Kovács of Hungary, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France and Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin — have no set deadline to hand down their decision but are expected to do so within 90 days.
Jerusalem, which has long argued that Palestine is not a sovereign state and therefore cannot transfer criminal jurisdiction over its territory to the Hague, is unlikely to accept the judges’ offer, lest any formal engagement with the court be seen as legitimizing it.
Palestinians in the West Bank on Friday rallied to mark 53 years since Israel captured the area from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and protest against the Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the territory.
In Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, dozens of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against Israeli settlements and the annexation plans, which could move ahead as soon as July 1.
Israeli troops fired stun grenades and tear gas to repel protesters approaching a military checkpoint.
“This march shows our rejection of any plan of settlement or annexation,” said Iyad Jarada, secretary of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in the city. “This is our land and we will defend it with all our power and energy.”
“This march shows our rejection of any plan of settlement or annexation,” said Iyad Jarada, secretary of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in the city. “This is our land and we will defend it with all our power and energy.”
No comments:
Post a Comment