A senior PLO official Friday stated that ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza) remains consensus among peace-loving countries.
Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat said in tweets that he had separate meetings with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Susanna Terstal and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.
“We discussed about the urgency to stop annexation to save the peace prospects. Respect for international law and ending the occupation remain a consensus among peace-loving countries,” he tweeted.
Separately, on the 53rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Erekat tweeted: “Ending the Israeli occupation is an international responsibility.”
“We have documented every crime the Israeli occupying power committed against the Palestinian people. We shall overcome,” he added.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are the internationally recognized Palestinian territories that have been occupied by Israeli since June 5, 1967.
There are almost 834,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The number of settlers has almost tripled since the Oslo Accords of 1993, when settlers’ number estimated 252,000. Illegal colonial settlements have leapt from 144 to 515 in that time.
