The Arab League's Permanent Committee on Human Rights recommended working with states to adopt clear international positions to confront Israel's crimes in Jerusalem. Washington has made it clear that it supports Palestinian self-rule and is not prepared to support the establishment of a full Palestinian state.
The Arab League's Permanent Committee on Human Rights recommended to the League of Arab States to address the Arab Group at the United Nations in Geneva and New York to work with States to adopt clear positions to address Israeli violations and racist practices of the occupying Power in the occupied Arab territories, Especially in Sur Baher and Wadi al-Homs, as a violation of the rules of international and humanitarian law, the relevant Security Council resolutions and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice for 2004.
At the end of its 46th Ordinary Session, the Committee also recommended that the Arab Group in New York and the Security Council should be invited to call on the international community to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians and to implement all its resolutions and General Assembly resolutions relating to the Palestinian situation.
The Committee recommended that the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States address the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Geneva to emphasize the adopted countries, institutions, companies and individuals to stop all forms of direct and indirect cooperation with the Israeli colonial occupation regime and its settlements in violation of international law and urge them to address the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights The relevant resolutions of the Human Rights Council and the publication of the database of companies operating in settlements as an integral part of States' obligations to ensure respect for international law.
The Committee called upon the General Secretariat of the League to coordinate with the State of Palestine and the Member States to issue joint reports on the situation of prisoners in Israeli prisons, especially with regard to minors, prisoners and sick prisoners, for dissemination to international human rights bodies concerned with humanitarian affairs.
This comes at a time announced by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, yesterday, a Palestinian move to convene a meeting of the United Nations to discuss the "violations" of Israel against the Palestinians. "The move is aimed at inviting the United Nations General Assembly to meet under the United for Peace," Maliki told the official Palestinian radio.
On the other hand, the Israeli government has agreed, in a rare step, to build 700 homes for Palestinians in part of the occupied West Bank under its full control, in addition to 6,000 housing units, an Israeli official said yesterday.
The official confirmed that the Israeli government had agreed to do so the day before yesterday, ahead of a planned visit to Gerard Kouchner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, who discussed the peace process with Jordan's King Abdullah II yesterday. It was not yet clear whether all houses would be built or whether some were actually built and retroactive.
In an interview with CNN yesterday, the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who supports the settlements, confirmed Kouchner's position.
Friedman said Washington supported Palestinian self-rule, but noted that Washington was not ready to support a full Palestinian state.