PLO: Israeli election infested with racism, incitement to violence

Palestinians denounced Netanyahu’s talk about annexing settlements.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (photo credit: REUTERS)
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
(photo credit: REUTERS)
On the eve of the elections in Israel, the PLO launched a scathing attack on mainstream candidates and said the campaign has been infested with racism and incitement.
The PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department said that none of these candidates have called for a comprehensive settlement plan with the Palestinians.
The PLO also warned that Israeli officials were “seeking to distort the facts by exploiting international coverage of the election.”
Israel, the group said, was seeking to use the Old City of Jerusalem as a “facade or background” for interviews with Israeli guests to “suggest that the Old City is part of Israel.”
In a statement titled “Israel’s 20th Knesset – The Reality in Occupied Palestine VS. International Actions,” the PLO accused the main candidates running in the election of “campaigning on the preservation and expansion of Israeli settlements, a commitment to further annexation of Palestinian land, reaffirmation of Jerusalem as the exclusive capital of Israel, the dehumanization of Palestinians and the denial of their rights.”
They claimed that the candidates, “whether from the current government or the opposition, rely upon the perpetuation of the culture of impunity allowing Israel to act without consequence.”
Israel, the group further charged, continues to receive growing international support “despite the fact that it has systematically violated international law and United Nations resolutions, rather than being threatened or served with sanctions.”
The PLO claimed that Israel has never recognized, let alone implemented, any resolution by the UN.
It took to task the international community for its failure to take measures against Israel for its “systematic violations and crimes.” On the other hand, the PLO praised the parliaments of Ireland and Chile for voting to ban products from Israeli settlements.
In a separate report, their Department of Public Diplomacy & Policy pointed out that aside from Meretz, Labor and Arab Israeli parties, “all other competing lists oppose Palestinian rights, reject the two-state solution, and have vowed to ensure that the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and freedom are quashed.”
The report accused Israeli candidates and party lists of engaging in a “fierce competition on who can be more aggressive against the Palestinian people, which party can exact more violence, and which party list of coalition is more capable of preventing the realization of Palestinian rights.”
This Israeli election season, the PLO report charged, “has been infested with racism, Islamophobia, incitement to violence, open calls for murder, and other gravely worrying signs of anti-Palestinian hatred. It demonstrates that the only issue Israeli parties agree on is how to deny the Palestinian people their rights.”


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