The grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has not improved despite recent diplomatic initiatives, Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine, said last week when the Palestinian Rights Committee met to adopt its annual report and review its activities since its last meeting.

Introducing the committee’s draft report, rapporteur Saviour Borg (Malta) said the report outlined the committee’s objectives and reviewed the situation relating to its mandate over the past year. It also denounced the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by Israel, extra judicial killings by that country, and the destruction of Palestinian property.

The draft report emphasised that the occupation, now in its 41st year, was the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. It stated that the sealing-off of the Gaza Strip, unrelenting Israeli incursions into Palestinian population centres and the humiliating system of checkpoints throughout the West Bank had had an extremely destructive effect on the lives of the Palestinian people, besides rendering the Palestinian Authority practically dysfunctional. For that reason, the committee would call upon Israel to end its military operations and stop any other measures that further undermined Palestinian institutions.

He said the committee would strongly condemn the killing of innocent civilians by either side, denouncing rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants. At the same time, it would strongly oppose Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank and its continued construction of the separation wall.

Through the draft, he said, the committee would call upon the Palestinian leadership, the leaders of all factions and all Palestinians to unite in support of President Abbas, his government and all democratically elected Palestinian institutions. It would call for the restoration of the situation in the Gaza Strip to that existing prior to June 2007, and for the preservation of the unity of Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.