Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday pointed to the “double standards” of the West, quick to invoke international law to impose sanctions on Russia which invaded Ukraine, but not on Israel for its “crimes” in the Palestinian Territories.
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Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has not condemned the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a power member of the Middle East Quartet and a country that officially recognizes Palestine as a state, unlike the United States. and the majority of European countries.
This reluctance has irritated Western diplomats in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories. Many Western diplomatic sources have thus reported to AFP on condition of anonymity of requests made to the Palestinian Authority – of which the European Union is the first donor – in order to condemn the invasion of the Ukraine.
Sunday, during a press conference alongside the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, the Palestinian president, who turned 87 on Saturday, reprimanded the “double standards” of Westerners on the files of Ukraine and of the Palestinian Territories.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli NGO B’Tselem accuse Israel of having established an “apartheid” regime against the Palestinians.
“Current events in Europe have brought to light blatant double standards,” Abbas said. “Despite the crimes of the Israeli occupation, which amount to ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination and which have been recognized by international human rights organisations, (…) we find no one to hold accountable Israel which acts as a state above the law”.
“What is happening in Palestine cannot be tolerated, international law cannot be flouted, and we wonder if the domination of the Israeli occupation authorities over the Palestinian people, the humiliation of their dignity and the violation of their rights legitimate, can continue without measures being taken to end it,” Abbas added in Arabic.
For Hanane Achraoui, former member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian refusal to condemn Russia does not show explicit support for Moscow, but a feeling of “hypocrisy” Westerners who quickly imposed sanctions on Russia, but not on Israel for its policy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“We are not on Russia’s side, but we feel an injustice,” she told AFP before the interview between MM. Abbas and Blinken.
Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City which it then annexed. The Jewish state has also imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip for 15 years.