PLO denounces Israeli land grab
The “most Democratic country in the Middle East” this week adopted a law that strips the rights of Christians and Muslims to land they own in order to allow Israelis who are Jewish only to live on those lands and build homes. The law is a fundamental aspect of Apartheid laws which were once implemented by the Apartheid government of South Africa
The General Delegation of the PLO to the United States strongly denounces Israel’s adoption of the “Regularization Law”
The General Delegation of the PLO to the United States strongly denounces Israel’s adoption of the “Regularization Law” which allows Israel to retroactively legalize privately owned Palestinian land for building illegal Israeli settlements.
The law aims to illegally annex Palestinian property, while giving license to settlers to grab land in the West Bank under the notion that it is Israeli land and will be used to build settlements. This comes shortly after last week’s recent announcement that Israel will begin construction on 6000 settlement units in the West Bank. This law blatantly disregards the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which considers illegal settlement activities a war crime and flagrantly violates international law and UN conventions, including the recent UN resolution 2334. Adoption of this law is a clear sign that Israel is not interested in committing to the two-state solution nor in bringing about peace and stability to the region.
It is crucial that the international community, including the United States, hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and put an end to its system of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and the occupation of the Palestinian people.
Illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel, a hotbed of fanaticism and hate. The land was taken from Christians and Muslims who owned land and homes and was used to build homes and farms for Jews only in the Israeli occupied territories. Photo courtesy of Maan News
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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