The municipality of the Belgian city of Liège decided to sever its relations with the Israeli occupation state, and all its public and private institutions, due to its repeated violations of the rights of the Palestinian people.

The municipality, which has had a twin relationship with the city of Ramallah since 2014, voted yesterday on a decision to stop dealing with Israel and all its institutions, and to refuse to deal with any institution that deals with settlements or plays any role in perpetuating the occupation.

The decision, which won the majority of the members of the municipal council and was submitted by the Belgian Labor Party group, and was supported by the Belgian Socialist Party group, the Green Party, and the representative of the “Vega” movement, in accordance with Belgian laws and the laws of the European Union, due to the violations of all obligations towards the human rights system. European human beings, and violating the rules of international law and the decisions taken, especially Resolution (242), issued in 1967, which rejects the seizure of lands by force, and calls for withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as based on Security Council Resolution No. (2334), which considers the establishment of settlements Israel is contrary to the rules of international law, and threatens the principle of establishing a Palestinian state, within the framework of a just and lasting peace.

The resolution confirms the support of the Palestinian people who suffer from the Israeli military occupation, from the apartheid regime and from settlements, and affirms its support for the boycott movement (BDS).

The resolution demands that Israel stop all its settlement activities, including in the city of East Jerusalem, and rejects all attempts to change the reality before the occupation that began on June 4, 1967.

The Department of Expatriate Affairs in the PLO welcomed the decision of the Municipality of Liège to sever its relations with the institutions of the occupying state, considering it an affirmation of the extent of rejecting the policies of apartheid, and the escalation of the occupation's crimes against our people, their land and their sanctities.

She praised the efforts of the Palestinian community and its movement in Belgium with the Belgian institutions and parties in organizing protests and events condemning the crimes of the occupation and its racist policies towards our people.