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Palestinian Foreign Minister Announces National Action Plan Against Barrier

Posted on: Monday, 11 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by Palestinian radio Voice of Palestine on 11 July

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nasir al-Qudwah has announced a national action plan aimed at forcing the Israeli government to implement the legal opinion reached by The Hague-based International Court of Justice [ICJ] with regard to the removal of the racial wall of annexation and expansion.

In a speech to participants at an international conference organized by the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] Foreign Ministry at its headquarters in Ramallah today on the first anniversary of the ICJ's legal opinion, Al-Qudwah noted that the plan builds on 10 points, the main one being that massive activities against the construction of the wall must continue in harmony with the diplomatic action designed to present the legal opinion at the international level, supporting citizens living behind the wall, calling on the Quartet [comprising the US, EU, Russia and UN] and the UN Security Council to have clear positions based on the legal opinion and to cause world opinion to exercise pressure and impose sanctions on the parties supporting force.

Al-Qudwah viewed the ICJ's legal opinion as the most important development pertaining to the Palestinian issue because it puts an end to the construction of the wall through the articles which call for it to be torn down, for compensation for the damage it has caused, for any circumstances resulting from it not to be recognized and for applying international resolutions to all of the occupied Palestinian territories, including holy Jerusalem.

Speakers at the conference, which included ambassadors and representatives of states accredited to the National Authority and representatives of several regional and international organizations, unanimously agreed that Israel must abide by the ICJ's legal opinion, which states that the racial wall is illegal and must be torn down.

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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