PRESS RELEASE 

PLO Executive Committee 

Department of Culture and Information

March 12, 2014

Dr. Ashrawi strongly condemns Israel’s extrajudicial killing of 6 Palestinians

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi strongly condemned Israel’s extrajudicial killing of six Palestinians in a twenty-four period.  Ismail Abu Judah (23), Shahir Abu Shanab (24), and Abd al-Shafi Muammar (33) were killed in an Israeli air raid targeting the Gaza Strip, and Saji Darwish (18), Raed Alaa Addin Zieter (38), and Feda’a Mohyi Al Deen Majadlah (23) were killed separately in the West Bank:

“Such an escalation in the targeting and killing of innocent Palestinian civilians is a direct result of Israel’s continuous and deliberate military occupation of Palestine, its people, land and resources.  The Israeli government is undermining the credibility of the “peace” negotiations which have become a cover for Israel to buy the time needed to change facts on the ground while blatantly provoking the Palestinian leadership to withdraw from the talks.”

Dr. Ashrawi stressed, “Israel is intentionally working to generate a culture of violence with its ongoing violations of international law and human rights.  It is bent on demonstrating that it is a rogue state with its repeated war crimes against the Palestinian people and sense of exceptionalism and impunity.”

“We call on the United Nations, the European Union, and other members of the international community to take immediate action and adopt the necessary punitive measures and initiatives required to hold Israel accountable for the extrajudicial killing of Palestinian civilians, among other violations of international and humanitarian law.  Such incessant and unaddressed crimes will plunge the entire region into great instability and violence,” concluded Dr. Ashrawi.