KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has welcomed the joint statement issued on Sept 8 by the foreign ministers of 12 Western countries regarding measures against illegal Israeli settlements.
Anwar said the steps represent an overdue shift in the approach of several Western governments and must now be matched by firm implementation.
“These governments should use their considerable diplomatic and economic leverage over Israel to press for an end to settlement expansion and forced displacement, accountability for the devastation inflicted on Gaza and unimpeded humanitarian access,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Anwar said he noted in particular that Britain, Canada and France would bring forward measures to ban trade in settlement goods, joining several European countries that have already taken this step.
“I also recognise the significance of the statement by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to the House of Commons. The United Kingdom has now formally recognised the unlawfulness of the Israeli occupation as a whole.
“It has also acknowledged that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is taking place in areas of the West Bank at the hands of what Mr Miliband rightly calls ‘settler terrorists’.
These are significant acknowledgements, grounded in international law and in the realities confronting the Palestinian people,” he said.
Anwar called on the international community to move beyond statements towards concrete and binding measures that uphold international law, protect the rights of the Palestinian people and secure a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK confirm their intention to introduce national and or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures.
