Dr. Shaath: “Israeli Apartheid policies must be stopped”

Member of the Fatah Central Committee and head of its International Relations Commission condemned Israeli policies aiming to deport thousands of Palestinians and foreigners from the occupied Palestinian territory.
“What Israel is doing is marginalizing and challenging the existence of the Palestinian Authority and dismissing the Oslo Agreements. The Government of Mr. Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Ehud Barak are saying once again that they will do anything to make peace or the two-state solution impossible.
According to a report published by Haaretz Newspaper today, the Israeli occupation forces will consider any Palestinian who has no special permit to be in a certain area within the occupied Palestinian territory an infiltrator and therefore will become a ‘criminal offender’ under Israeli law.
“What the occupying power is doing is punishing Palestinians for existing. Under this new Apartheid law, a Palestinian from the West Bank found in the Jordan Valley, a Gaza ID holder living in the West Bank, a Jerusalemite married to a Palestinian ID holder or a foreigner married to a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank can all be considered criminal offenders, meaning they can be imprisoned for up to three years or deported”
Dr. Shaath called on the international community to take a serious stand against this “Israeli policy which puts to shame the South African Apartheid. This law is the product of a government who does not believe in peace and who has been enjoying a culture of impunity that allows it to continue its racist and illegal behavior”.
To conclude, Dr. Shaath stated that “this policy must be added to the suffering experienced by thousands of foreign passport holders of Palestinian origin being denied entry into their homeland as well as the hundreds of already divided families by Israeli Apartheid policies”.
We call upon all peace loving nations around the world and the US and Europe in particular to put an end to such illegal and inhuman measures planned to increase the suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli military occupation and undermine international peace efforts between Palestinians and Israelis.