The Government of Israel has announced its intention to promote, as of July 1st., the annexation of about 30% of the territory of the West Bank, illegally occupied since 1967. Such a decision violates the United Nations Charter which, in its Article 2 establishes the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force. Furthermore, it defies the international consensus established on the resolution of the Palestinian issue. Decades of United Nations resolutions, namely General Assembly Resolutions 181 and 194, and Security Council 242, 338, 1397 and 2334, established the two-state solution, thereby recognising the right to the constitution of the Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including East Jerusalem. In this sense, the United Nations General Assembly recognised Palestine as a “non-member state” (resolution 67/19 of 29.11.2012), and to the Palestinian people permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the territories occupied by Israel, including East Jerusalem (resolution 60/183 of 12.22.2005).
In the aftermath of the settlements policy, pursued at the expense of the expropriation of the Palestinian population of their lands, the de jure annexation of territory in the West Bank, if materialised, would constitute a violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and of international law, with this intention already having raised a widespread international censure.
Thus, in compliance with constitutional precepts and following previous deliberations that reaffirm the two-state solution and the recognition of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to the constitution of a state, on the borders prior to 1967, with East Jerusalem as Capital, the Assembly of the Republic, decides:
- To express its strongest condemnation of the announced intentions of the Government of Israel, of annexation of the Palestinian territories, a fact that in itself constitutes an intolerable violation of international law;
- To recommend to the Portuguese Government to, through political and diplomatic channels and in terms of bilateral and multilateral relations, intervene in a decisive way and as the situation demands, in defence of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.