Ref: 31/2023

Date: 19 June 2023

Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), met with Mr. Mark Gerristen, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Marilyn Münster, a Unit Director at the same Department, and other Dutch officials at the Office of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Amsterdam.

During the meeting, Sourani presented an detailed overview of the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Israeli-imposed closure and recurrent military offensives on the Gaza Strip, where civilians and civilian objects are in the eye of the storm.

Sourani also addressed Israel’s targeting Jerusalem through ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians living in the city, raids on al-Aqsa Mosque, including assaults against Palestinian worshipers and visitors to the mosque, Sheikh Jarrah and Khan al-Ahmar, as well as the systematic expulsions of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta and Jordan Valleys.

Moreover, Sourani shed the light on the Israeli incursions into the Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, and the daily willful and systematic killings of women, children and civilians there.

Sourani also condemned the Israeli apartheid and the international community’s silence towards it, as well as Israel’s de facto and de jure annexation of the occupied territory.

Sourani called on Europe to intervene to stop the infringement on United Nations (UN) organizations, especially that the employees of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) no longer work in the oPt and Israel practices a similar policy with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA). This proves that Israel aims to cease all UN organizations’ operations amid the silent diplomacy of the international organizations and international community..

Sourani also criticized the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the politicization and selectivity, especially with the support of some European countries.

At the end of the meeting, Ms. Marilyn Münster and her staff promised to visit the OPT and continue their support for the rule of law and human rights in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially that Netherlands is the host country to the ICC.