PLO Ashrawi urges Britain to recognize Palestine State
A few days ahead of the British parliamentary vote on the recognition of the State of Palestine, PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, met with correspondents from British media outlets in Palestine to reiterate the official call of the PLO for all states to recognize the State of Palestine as a “human, moral, legal, and political imperative.”
Dr. Ashrawi said, “We welcome and appreciate the initiative of a group of British parliamentarians to ask their government to recognize the State of Palestine. If the British parliament vote reflects British public opinion, it will support the motion. This would be the first clear step taken by the UK as part of the process of historical rectification of the disastrous consequences of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate over Palestine that ended in 1948 with the creation of the State of Israel.”
“During the past few weeks we have received many messages from British friends representing political parties, civil society, churches, and others in support of the motion to recognize the State of Palestine. We call upon all of them to pursue such efforts in order to obtain a victory on October 13 for the universal cause of justice in the British Parliament. Regardless of the non-binding nature of the vote, it will have a significant impact on the British government’s policies and upcoming decisions on Palestine.”
“We utterly reject the position of those who insist that Palestinian sovereignty is subject to Israeli approval; our independence is a natural right as per international law, and it high time for freedom and justice to prevail,” concluded Dr. Ashrawi.
The statement from Dr. Ashrawi comes a week after the Government of Sweden recognize Palestine as a Sovereign State and accorded the Palestinians,w ho are under occupation, full diplomatic recognition.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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