SVEND ROBINSON TO TRAVEL TO ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED TERRITORIES ON URGENT SOLIDARITY MISSION TO JOIN ARAFAT IN RAMALLAH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE , APRIL 3, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 3, 2002
SVEND ROBINSON TO TRAVEL TO ISRAEL AND OCCUPIED TERRITORIES ON URGENT SOLIDARITY MISSION TO JOIN ARAFAT IN RAMALLAH
OTTAWA - NDP Foreign Affairs spokesperson Svend Robinson will travel
to the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Friday, April 5th. Robinson
will seek to enter Ramallah and meet with Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian leaders.
While Israeli authorities have sealed off the city
from all foreign visitors, diplomats, and journalists, Robinson will seek
to enter Ramallah to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The MP plans to meet with President Arafat shortly after his arrival in
Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon.
"Like many Canadians, I am deeply concerned and
alarmed about the illegal, violent actions of the Israeli government in
the occupied territories, particularly sealing off Ramallah and President
Arafat from the eyes of the world," Robinson said. "The Israeli government
is demonstrating total contempt for international humanitarian law and
the 4th Geneva Convention.
"The Red Crescent has issued a desperate plea to
stop the Israelis from cutting off water, food, medicines, and medical
supplies including oxygen and blood, and from blocking ambulances," the
NDP MP said. "Tragically, in responding to terrorist suicide bombers who
have killed innocent civilians and whose actions must be condemned in the
strongest possible terms, Israel is itself guilty of acts of state terrorism."
Robinson is calling on the international community
to speak out against the Israeli siege of the occupied territories. The
MP has criticized the decision of the Canadian delegation at the UN Commission
on Human Rights yesterday to oppose a special sitting of the Commission
to debate the current events in the Occupied Territories.
Robinson has also called for an emergency meeting
of the Security Council to discuss the deployment of an international protection
force in the occupied territories.
"The dehumanizing and illegal occupation must end,
and both Israel and Palestine must live in peaceful coexistence as viable
independent states, free of all threats from neighbouring countries," the
MP for Burnaby-Douglas said.
Svend Robinson is the longest serving member of
the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, and is also the elected
Rapporteur of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on human rights and democracy.
He has informed the Department of Foreign Affairs of his plans, and is
seeking their assistance to facilitate the visit.
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Svend Robinson will be available for comment. Please contact his assistant Dan Fredrick in Ottawa by e-mail at robins@parl.gc.ca or at (613) 996-5599.
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