An Arab League meeting called on the world to fight Israel's ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, reports Dina Ezzat "The Arab League Council considers that this racist Israeli decision against the Palestinian people aims to directly and indirectly apply forced deportation on Palestinians by the forces of occupation." This was the collective position adopted by the 22-member Arab League in an extraordinary meeting of its permanent representatives Tuesday afternoon. The meeting discussed a recent Israeli order to deport or jail Palestinians in the West Bank who fail to show that they have the proper residence documents required by the occupation authorities that have already been very restrictive in issuing identity papers to Palestinians in the West Bank. The Arab League called on Palestinians in the West Bank not to succumb to the Israeli orders and insisted that such orders "violate the [peace] agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organisation [PLO] and Israel including the Oslo agreement". These orders, the council of the Arab League also stated in a communiqué issued at the end of its meeting, violates the international obligation by Israel as a power of occupation and shows yet again that Israel is acting as a state above the law. The Arab League is currently working to seek an extra-ordinary meeting for the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights to solicit a collective world reaction to the Israeli move. It will also seek a possible legal process to defer the order and its consequences by international legal bodies including the International Criminal Court. "This is a flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law," stated the communiqué of the Arab League Council on Tuesday. "It is a war crime," it added. The orders in question were issued Sunday. Israeli human rights groups assess that they would target tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank. Arab sources say that the initial targeted group is 70,000 people with some 100,000-200,000 dependents. For its part, the council of the Arab League assessed that these orders aim to finally put in place the full separation between the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza as it creates two separate congested zones for Palestinians under occupation with no link between the two zones, hardly any inter-communication and consequently no hope for the establishment of any viable Palestinian state. "This makes the resumption of any kind of negotiations [between the Palestinians and Israel] futile," the communiqué of the Arab organisation stated in an indirect reference to the attempts of US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell to start proximity talks between Palestinians and Israelis. The Arab League meeting came against the backdrop of press statements made in Paris by Israeli President Shimon Peres who called for the immediate resumption of talks between Palestinians and Israelis. "A year has already gone by and it's already late. The negotiations have to be urgently taken up again and we can get to a compromise," Peres said after a meeting with French Prime Minister François Fillon. "We need to tell our Palestinian friends that too much time has been lost towards the resumption of talks," he added. The Israeli president also paid tribute to France for "the extraordinary role that it constantly plays in the peace process". Paris has offered to host a peace conference as long as the talks lead to results. The offer was made jointly with Egypt. The two countries co-chair the Union for the Mediterranean. Earlier this week Spanish President Miguel Mauratinos said that his country will work with France and Egypt to revive this call.
