The PA Foreign Ministry said that the move is “a flagrant violation of international law and resolutions,” and an act of “direct aggression against the Palestinian people and their rights."
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, TOVAH LAZAROFFThe Palestinian flag flies after being raised by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a ceremony outside the United Nations in New York, September 30, 2015.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority called for an Arab boycott of Honduras in protest of next week’s inauguration of that country’s diplomatic mission in Jerusalem.The PA Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the move is “a flagrant violation of international law and resolutions,” and an act of “direct aggression against the Palestinian people and their rights.”President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez is due to arrive in Israel on Saturday for a two-day visit.On Sunday he will open a trade office in Jerusalem that is considered an extension of its Tel Aviv Embassy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to join him for the event.The opening of a trade office with diplomatic status is seen as a de facto recognition of at least west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and a nod in the direction of opening an embassy in the capital. To date, only the US and Guatemala have embassies in Israel’s capital.Australia, the Czech Republic and Hungary have also opened trade offices in Jerusalem, and other countries have promised to open such offices, including Ukraine, Brazil and Paraguay.The Honduras decision, the PA Foreign Ministry said, “does not help any international and regional efforts to achieve peace on the basis of international references and the principle of a two-state solution.”The ministry said that the PA has decided to file a complaint against Honduras with the United Nations secretary-general over the opening of the diplomatic mission in Jerusalem.The PA is also planning to submit a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly against Honduras for violating Security Council resolution 478 of 1980, which condemns Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem.The PA also decided to ask the Arab League to condemn the move and push for punitive measures against Honduras for allegedly committing a “crime against the Palestinian people and ignoring its obligations toward Security Council resolutions.”
In addition, the PA is plans to ask the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation to impose a trade boycott against Honduras.The Central American country has the second-largest population of Palestinians in Latin America after Chile. It recognized the State of Palestine in 2011, and formally established diplomatic ties with it in 2013.Honduras also voted to upgrade the UN General Assembly Resolution that recognized Palestine as a non-member state of the UN, thereby grating it de facto statehood status at the UN.To date, 138 of the UN’s 193 member states have recognized Palestine as a state. In Berlin on Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on European states such as Germany, which has not yet recognized Palestine, to do so.Speaking at a joint news conference with Angela Merkel, Abbas also urged the UN Security Council to replace the US as the broker for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
