The Belgian city of Vervettua cuts ties with the occupation government in response to its racist crimes

The campaign to boycott the Israeli occupation continues by many European cities and institutions and other cities of the countries of the world, in response to the occupation committing crimes of apartheid against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Last February, Amnesty International called on the Israeli occupation government to dismantle the apartheid regime, which causes so much suffering and bloodshed. The organization stated that since it launched a major campaign against the apartheid regime one year ago, Israeli forces have killed nearly of 220 Palestinians, including 35 in January 2023 alone, stressing that the unlawful killings reflect the maintenance of the Israeli apartheid regime, and constitute crimes against humanity, just like other grave and ongoing violations committed by the Israeli occupation authorities, such as administrative detention And forcible transfer, said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International: These tragic events that took place and led to the killing of Palestinians once again revealed the deadly cost of the apartheid regime, the failure of the international community to hold the Israeli authorities accountable for the crimes of apartheid, and other crimes It has unleashed the daily isolation, division, control and oppression of Palestinians, and helps perpetuate the deadly violence apartheid is a crime against humanity, and it is frankly appalling to see the perpetrators escape justice year after year. In early 2022, Amnesty International accused the occupation government of perpetuating the apartheid regime and called on countries of the world and international organizations to combat this system.

Since that time, a campaign has begun in many countries of the world to boycott the apartheid regime practiced by the occupation government against the Palestinian people, and in this context, last Wednesday, the thirty-first of last May, the city of Vervieuta in Belgium announced the severing of its relations with the occupying state, in response For committing crimes of apartheid against the Palestinians, and for its repeated violation of the rights of the Palestinian people. The city's decision comes in the wake of similar decisions taken by a number of European municipalities earlier.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement clarified that this decision came in order to strengthen support for the Palestinian people, noting that Vervieus is the latest European city to sever its relations with the Israeli apartheid regime, and it is noteworthy that the Belgian city council of Liège decided last April to freeze Its relations with Israel, because its system is based on “apartheid, colonialism and military occupation.” On the seventeenth of last April, the mayor of Belém in Brazil, Edmilson Rodriguez, announced the freezing of all institutional relations with Israel, including the cancellation of the twinning agreement with Tel Aviv, In response to Israel's commission of the crime of apartheid against the Palestinians, and its repeated violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, the Norwegian capital Oslo decided, in the same month, to exclude companies that contribute directly or indirectly to the illegal Israeli settlement project, and last February, it decided Mayor of Barcelona, Catalonia, the Spanish state) suspending institutional ties with the Israeli apartheid regime), in turn, the Palestinian National Committee (BNC), the broadest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads the global boycott of Israel (BDS) movement, welcomed Vervito's decision, and praised the tireless work For the Belgian civil society that made this possible, she urged cities around the world to follow the example of these municipalities, which have frozen their relations with the Israeli apartheid regime, in support of the Palestinian struggle for the dismantling of apartheid.

The expansion of the boycott campaign against the occupation government comes at a time when the most powerful, extreme right-wing government of the Israeli occupation, and the most racist one led by (Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir) continues its aggressive policy against the Palestinian people, and after 2022, which was one of the bloodiest years against the Palestinian people, with testimony Amnesty International and other international organizations witnessed an escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories, killings, arrests, land confiscation and settlement expansion, in addition to demolitions and destruction of homes and various facilities, and after a series of racist legislation and laws approved by the Israeli Knesset against the Palestinian people in Jerusalem. And the lands of 48, and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, especially against prisoners and detainees, including the criminalization of raising the Palestinian flag, imposing the death penalty on prisoners, and other racist laws that violate international humanitarian law and human rights law.

The campaign to boycott this racist regime is respected and appreciated by our people, and it should deepen and expand in all countries and cities that are friendly and supportive of the struggle of our people, until the system of occupation and apartheid is dismantled, and it is evacuated from our occupied Palestinian land, and until our people achieve their independence and self-determination, and until they wrest all His legitimate national rights, and his right to return to his homeland and build his independent state with full sovereignty on his land.