The League of Parliamentarians for al-Quds (LP4Q), Dr. Mohammad Makram Balawi, called on European parliamentarians to support the Palestinian cause based on human values and international law; and to renounce Israeli aggression and occupation.

Balawi added, during his speech in a webinar organized by The EuroPal Forum, titled “The Cost of Annexation: Europe’s Current Position and Future Perspectives”. that the role assigned to European parliamentarians is very important and influential in the conflict with the Israeli occupation, calling on them “to help unite all parliamentarians from all backgrounds, in a single platform, to unite efforts in support of the rights of the Palestinian people and to support the freedom and equality of the Palestinian.”

He explained that LP4Q recognises the challenges and barriers facing European parliamentarians, including accusations of anti-Semitism, which results in hesitation by Parliamentarians to participate directly in the League’s activities and in support of the Palestinian cause.

Balawi said that Israel has effectively ended the two-state solution, and rejected the one-state solution, creating despair and anger of the Palestinian people. The occupation has been following a policy of delaying its obligations since the begenning of the occupation; he said that despite this, there is still hope to end this bloody conflict.

He pointed out that the Palestinian people yearn for global support to end Israeli demolitions of homes and support to confront Israeli racism, “the governments of the world must make it crystal clear, that the Israeli must face consequences for the unilateral and illegal policies of expelling the Palestinians from their homes, for ignoring United Nations resolutions, and denying the Palestinian people their basic political and human rights. Otherwise, we will return again to the medieval ages conflict and the absence of confidence in the global political system. “

Balawi pointed out that the League has organized three conferences since 2015 attended by hundreds of parliamentarians from more than 70 countries around the world, the aim of which was to put real pressure on Israel to comply with international law and United Nations decisions, and to bring Israeli war criminals to the courts.

Double Standards

For her part, members of the House of Lords, Baroness Jenny Tonge, confirmed that the United Kingdom never supported the Israeli government’s plan to annex lands from the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

During her speech at the same webinar, Tonge said, London shared their opinion with European leaders on the rejection of the annexation plan and to return to the two-state solution, noting that “the two-state solution has become an impossible dream.”

She expressed her surprise at the double standards of her country’s government, “while it applied sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea, it did not apply sanctions against Israel for annexing parts of the West Bank.” elaborating: “Another challenge for us is that we in the UK left the European Union, and I think that in this way, the government wants to get closer to America, Israel’s close friend, which is run by the Israeli lobby. It is difficult to extract a real position from the United Kingdom to oppose the annexation paln. “

“I am very concerned about the stupidity of the British government, a year ago the government signed a trade agreement with Israel. There are many European parliamentarians who would like to openly criticize Israel, but they are afraid, and you know why, because they fear the accusation of anti-Semitism,” she stressed.