Ref: 47/2017  

On Tuesday morning, 28 November 2017, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) received Mr. Jonathan Conlon, Representative of Ireland in Palestine, accompanied with Mr. Declan Johnston, Deputy Representative, and Mr. Emile Makhlouf, Programme Advisor. The delegation met with lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, and Hamdi Shaqqoura, Deputy Director for Program Affairs.

During the delegation’s visit, the overall human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory was discussed with a particular focus on recent developments regarding the prospects for the Palestinian national reconciliation. Sourani emphasized the high importance of the negotiations between the Palestinian parties to reconciliation, as the division was added to the Palestinian people’s suffering resulting from the Israeli occupation for half a century. The ongoing Israeli new brank of apartheid in the West Bank, inhuman closure imposed on the Gaza population and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem have inflicted incredible hardships on the Palestinians. The Israeli occupation along with the Palestinian division resulted in tragic humanitarian consequences for almost 2 million Palestinians who have been trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip for 11 years.

Sourani elaborated further on the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, while stressing the international community’s responsibility to protect the Palestinian rights and to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to end the collective punishment of Palestinians and the man-made disaster imposed on the Gaza population, whose all life aspects have been destructively affected.