B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad will tomorrow (Monday, 27 November 2017) attend a conference at the French Senate organized by the Institut de Recherche et d’Études Méditerranée Moyen-Orient (iReMMO). The event will emphasize the vital need for France, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to intervene in the developments in the Occupied Territories. At the beginning of next month, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to visit Paris and meet with President Macron. At the conference, entitled “France Must Act,” El-Ad will highlight Israel’s attempts to portray itself as a member of the club of democratic nations while maintaining a regime of oppression for over 50 years. Other participants will include Shawan Jabarin, General Director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq; MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List; former Israeli ambassador to France Daniel Shek; as well as academics and senior French diplomats.

El-Ad will discuss Israel’s public announcement of its intention to pursue a plan for the forced transfer of Palestinian communities in Area C – an act that constitutes a war crime – in the face of the impotence and failure of the international community to take any practical action to oppose such human rights violations. Before departing for Paris, El-Ad explained: “In the past, Israel seized control of Palestinian land under the cloak of a peace process. Now even this is no longer necessary: all that is required is some vague anticipation of an American plan perceived in Jerusalem as a green light for demolition on one side and settlement on the other. The picture is clear, and it is equally clear that international action to end the occupation is more important and more necessary today than ever before.”