A panel of United Nations experts on Monday called on all nations to recognize Palestine as a state, in line with the 146 countries that have already done so, and use all their political and diplomatic leverage to bring about an immediate cease-fire.
Recognition constituted an “important acknowledgement of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggles and suffering towards freedom and independence,” the experts were quoted as saying in a UN Humans Rights Office news release.
Palestine, they said, must be granted “full self-determination, including the ability to exist, determine their destiny and develop freely as a people with safety and security.”
“This is a pre-condition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East — beginning with the immediate declaration of a cease-fire in Gaza and no further military incursions into Rafah,” said the panel of 26 experts in fields ranging from democracy, human rights to safe drinking water, sanitation and education to the rights of internally displaced people, indigenous people and the use of mercenaries.
The group defined “State of Palestine” as being the state formally declared by the Palestine Liberation Organization Nov. 15, 1988, that claims sovereignty over parts of historic Palestine occupied by Israel in the 1967 war — the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The experts hailed the joint move last week by Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognize Palestinian statehood with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling it an “historic” shift with the sole aim of “achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”—UPI
