JEDDAH: A human rights body at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has rejected US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.
His plan includes a Palestinian state and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements. The US leader said Jerusalem would remain Israel’s “undivided” capital, but that the Palestinian capital would “include areas of East Jerusalem.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it the "deal of the century."
Trump's plan has been rejected by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which rules Gaza.
The OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) said that a peace initiative would only succeed when it followed the “inalienable right to self-determination” of Palestinians guaranteed by international law and UN resolutions. Any peace process needed to have the full involvement of the Palestinians, who were the aggrieved party, it added.
It reiterated its view that any unilateral act to alter the demographic, geographic and historical status of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) not only contravened international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, it would go against against several UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council Resolutions, which affirmed the status of Al-Quds as an occupied territory under Israel since 1967.
The commission welcomed statements from the UN and the OIC, giving its full support to a two- state solution that must help Palestinians to establish their own independent, viable and contiguous state in pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital including their “unquestionable right” to return to their homes and property, as decided in UN resolutions and guaranteed by international law.
