RAMALLAH, July 15, 2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that “ it is of the utmost urgency for Europe to take bold initiatives and concrete steps to counter Israel’s impunity and its prejudicial measures on the ground before it is too late,” Sunday said a press release by the PLO department of cultural and information.

During a meeting with the Belgian Minister of Defense, Pieter De Crem, and the Chief of Staff of the Belgian Ministry of Defense, Ludwig Van Der Veken, as well as representatives from the Ministry and the Belgian Consulate, as part of her ongoing diplomatic meetings, Ashrawi stressed: “Clearly we are in the middle of a crisis.  Israel is deliberately and systematically breaching international and humanitarian laws, and its unilateral violations on the ground are the antithesis to the peace.”

“If there is no intervention to curb Israeli violations, Israel will succeed in destroying the prospects for peace by destroying the chances of establishing an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” She added.

“It is evident that the US-Israel strategic alliance is undermining the standing of the US and the role of the Quartet in peacemaking,” she said.

“The main impediment preventing us from developing our own economy and national institutions remains the occupation, a system of direct control and enslavement, whereby Israel is violating all Palestinian human rights and freedoms and confiscating our land and resources, while the siege and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem continue,” concluded Ashrawi.

She discussed the latest political developments in Palestine, as well as issues of mutual concern with Belgium.

The meeting also stressed the continued Palestinian-European coordination and cooperation and enhanced consultations on political, economic and international issues of mutual interest.

T.R./F.R.