Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), welcomed the ruling by the Canadian Federal Court on the illegality of wine labels issued by illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, as products made in Israel.
This is an important first step for Canada and beyond, because this historical matters has emphasized the rule of law and Canada’s commitment to respect international law, which considers the illegal settlements and does not recognize them as part of Israel.
In the light of this important matters, the Palestinian leadership calls on the Canadian government to act in accordance with the Canadian and international laws and to amend this laws without delay, which is the Law of Implementation of the free trade agreement between Israel and Canada (Bill C-85), which provides the original products from the status of illegal Israeli settlements. In flagrant violation of Canada’s obligations under international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, United Nations Security Council resolutions, and resolution 2334 (2016). This shows that the Convention also violates Canadian laws and values.
Furthermore, we call on all other countries, especially the European Union, the largest Israel’s trading partner, to apply European and international laws for its agreements with Israel. It is too late for the European Union to take the simple step of properly labeling the products resulting from illegal Israeli settlements and ensuring that its own partnership agreements are not enabled or sustained in the ongoing looting of Palestinian natural resources and that the use of the Commission is a crime war, as defined in the Rome Statute Basic.
The illegal settlement system of Israel is the embodiment of its colonial agenda in Palestine and its resolute efforts to deprive the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights to self-determination and freedom. The obligation of all States to respect international law and the national rights of the Palestinian people is absolute.
Those agreements can’t be guaranteed without practical steps that denies Israel and the complicit companies to benefit from colonial occupation and flagrant violations of the international law.
Accountability is the shortest and most assured way to justice.
