Palestine Solidarity Campaign to hold demonstration in Accra over Jerusalem

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) would on Wednesday, December 20th, hold a demonstration in Accra, to condemn the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by President Donald Trump.

The event, which is scheduled to start at the Kwame Nkrumah overpass at 8.00am, would end at the open space near the Arts Centre in Accra.

Mr. Yaw Appiah-Kubi, a member of the PSC, told journalists on Monday at a press briefing in Accra that the decision by the US President had led to the complete isolation of the US by the rest of the world.

“Those who have condemned the move include the leadership of all the Palestinian factions, Jordan’s king Abdullah whose country already provides shelter for more than two million Palestinian refugees, the Prime Minister of Britain-Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Emmanuel Macron, and leaders from all over the world,” he said.

He said condemnations had also come from Pope Francis-leader of the Catholic Church, whilst the Anglican Church, the Coptic Church of Egypt, Muslim and Jewish leaders along with many others, had also expressed their condemnation.

Mr. Appiah-Kubi said the entire world had rejected the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, because it amounted to a flagrant violation of international law and offended the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council.

He said it also subverted efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and endorsed “the illegal settlements on Palestinian lands.”

Mr. Appiah-Kubi said it also Showed that the US could no longer “masquerade “as a neutral arbiter for peace in the Middle East.

“We see Donald Trump’s announcement as an unfortunate endorsement of apartheid rule in Palestine, the refusal of Israel to respect the rights of Palestinian refugees to return home, and to release all political prisoners in Palestine,” he said.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, an estimated 800,000 people had been detained in Israeli prisons, since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967, said Mr. Appiah-Kubi.

He said the number represented 20 percent of the total Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories, and 40 percent of the total Palestinian male population.

Mr. Appiah-Kubi observed that every Palestinian family had been affected by the ordeal of having one or several of its members in prison, adding, “Palestinians have thus been subjected to one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, in the most striking example of politically motivated mass imprisonment in contemporary history.”

He called on “people of conscience in Ghana to join the protest on Wednesday saying, “We cannot tolerate apartheid rule in any part of the world, and Palestine must be truly free.”

The demonstration would also involve allied groups of the PSC which are the Rastafarian Council, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, the African Voices for Palestine, the African Youth Improvement Foundation, Irbard Security Consult, and Food Sovereignty Ghana.

Ras Mubarak, Member of Parliament for the Kumbugu Constituency and a member of the PSC, said the demonstration was purely about human rights.

“The world should always stand up for the persecuted, where ever they may be,” he said.

He continued that, “We are encouraging the boycott of things form Israel, so we make them know we do not like the apartheid system there”.

Ras Mubarak said the fight was not against the people of Israel because there were individual Israelis who were not happy about the situation.

He said the target was for the political leadership to have a change of heart, towards their ill-treatment of the Palestinians.

Source: GNA