Just Peace Advocates is pleased to have signed the Palestinian Civil Society Unified Call to Action

As UN member states prepare to convene in New York on 17 June for the High-Level Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, and as France is set to convene selected actors on 13 June with the declared aim of issuing “a clear and urgent call to action to the international community” ahead of the conference, we—the undersigned Palestinian civil society organizations and coalitions in Palestine and in exile—reaffirm our unified demands for a just and lawful resolution grounded in the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Rooted in decades of engagement with our communities and international advocacy, Palestinian civil society has consistently witnessed the harmful consequences of ineffective, exclusionary, and symbolic international political approaches. This upcoming conference could serve as a turning point—but only if it is re-centered on its legal foundation: UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/24, built on decades of existing international law obligations. This resolution welcomed the July 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion, which called on Israel to comply with international law, including ending its unlawful occupation, realizing the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and return, and requiring third states to adopt concrete sanctions and accountability measures to uphold international law.

Yet the preparatory processes and discussions—including the Paris “civil society” convening—have sidelined this legal premise instead advancing a narrow two-state agenda that cannot address the realities of fragmentation, siege, and genocide under a settler colonial regime. For decades, international approaches have obscured power asymmetries, equated colonizer and colonized, and funneled diplomatic and economic resources into processes and approaches that shield Israel from accountability while managing—rather than resolving—the root causes of injustice: over seven decades of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, maintained through military occupation, blockade, and genocide.

Approaches that promote dialogue with Israeli authorities, organizations, or individuals who do not challenge the settler-colonial reality or recognize Palestinians’ fundamental rights to self-determination and return ultimately serve to whitewash Israel’s ongoing crimes. A just resolution to the Question of Palestine requires a fundamental shift away from narrow and misguided frameworks of “statehood building” and “peacebuilding” under continued occupation, toward a political approach grounded in dismantling Israel’s colonial, apartheid, and occupation regime, and realizing Palestinian rights to self-determination and return.

As our people endure genocide, forced starvation, ethnic cleansing, and further dispossession, this is not the time for repackaged failures. It is a long-overdue moment for concrete action: meaningful accountability, sustained international pressure, and urgent sanctions to dismantle Israel’s unlawful regime and uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

We therefore call on all states, institutions, and actors engaging with the Conference to: 

1. Ground all solutions in the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including:
   • The right to self-determination, a peremptory norm under international law, for all 15 million Palestinians. This right does not begin or end with statehood but includes the collective will of the people to freely determine their political status and pursue economic, social, and cultural development, including sovereignty over land and resources.
   • The right of return for all Palestinian refugees displaced during the Nakba (1948), Naksa (1967), and in all subsequent waves of forced displacement.
   • The right to full reparation, including restitution, compensation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition.
2. Immediately Stop the Genocide and End the Siege on Gaza:
   This requires an immediate unconditional ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza, and the immediate, unrestricted provision of humanitarian assistance.
    
3. Dismantle Israel’s settler colonial and apartheid structures by:
   • Enabling the right to self-determination and return. 
   • Repealing all discriminatory laws against Palestinians.
   • Ending the military occupation.
   • Lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
      
4. Support Palestinian efforts to rebuild a unified, democratic Palestinian leadership, representing the Palestinian people in Palestine and in exile by:

• Ending the delegitimization of Palestinian political factions and promote national reconciliation without imposed conditions.
• Pressuring Israel to release all Palestinian political prisoners and end arbitrary detention and torture.
   

5. Implement concrete accountability measures, in line with third states’ erga omnes obligations, not to recognize, aid, or assist Israel’s unlawful apartheid, genocide, occupation and the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination, including:

• Impose a two-way military embargo on Israel, covering all arms, military technology, surveillance equipment, jet fuel, training, joint exercises, military bases and the export, import, transfer, and transit of all parts, components, and dual-use items;
• Enforce diplomatic sanctions, including by expelling Israeli ambassadors and suspending official visits and cooperation with Israeli authorities;
• Impose targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on individuals and institutions complicit in Israel’s international crimes;
• End all economic aid and cooperation agreements that sustain Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid regime, including cancelling free trade agreements;
• Impose a two-way energy embargo by halting all imports/exports of oil, gas, and coal; divesting from extraction projects; and terminating all agreements involving transit and pipelines, and infrastructure involving occupied Palestinian territory, including its maritime zones;
• Prohibit coastal passage and docking of vessels in their territorial waters carrying weapons, military and dual use equipment, fuel, or goods supporting Israel’s occupation, genocide, apartheid or illegal settlements; prohibit vessels flying their flag from carrying such military and dual-use materiel.
• Terminate all bilateral and multilateral Free Trade and Cooperation Agreements, especially the EU-Israel Association Agreement under Article 2 violation, and all EU-funded cooperation programs, including academic, cultural and sports programs, and the Mercosur-Israel Free Trade Agreement;
• Adopt national legislation preventing businesses within your jurisdiction from operating, trading, investing, or maintaining Israel’s illegal occupation, including its settlement enterprise;
• Ensure that corporate entities and financial institutions under your jurisdiction divest any assets from Israeli and complicit companies and corporations implicated in international crimes.
• Repeal all domestic laws and policies that criminalize Palestinian solidarity, especially through protests and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigning;
• Investigate and prosecute nationals involved in crimes against Palestinians, including dual citizens in the Israeli military, and issue directives discouraging enlistment.
• Activate universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of international crimes against Palestinians in domestic courts.
• Enforce ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant by arresting and transferring them to The Hague if present within jurisdiction, including airspace.
• Support the ICC investigation into the situation in Palestine by protecting its staff, opposing sanctions, increasing financial support, and pressuring Israel to grant access to Palestine to ICC staff to conduct independent investigations;
• Refer the Situation in Palestine to the ICC, where not yet done, emphasizing crimes of apartheid, genocide, and crimes related to the unlawful occupation.
• Support the ICJ cases brought by South Africa against Israel for genocide, and by Nicaragua against Germany for aiding it, including by submitting declaration of intervention under Article 63 of the Statute of Court.
• Join the Hague Group, aligning with Global South states advancing accountability measures to support Palestinian self-determination.
• Demand that the UNGA reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and UN Centre Against Apartheid, to bring Israel’s apartheid to an end.
• Demand that the UNGA suspend Israel’s membership for violating its membership conditions, including non-compliance with Resolution 194. This is compounded by its systematic violations and attacks on UN principles and institutions;
• Support the mandate of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the oPt and Israel, including by pressuring Israel to grant access to Palestine for independent investigations. 

The Conference presents a critical opportunity to move beyond flawed frameworks and toward meaningful measures that will carve a path to resolving the “Question of Palestine” with actions rooted in principles of international law. As Palestinian civil society, we speak with one voice: any path forward must begin by confronting and dismantling the structures of colonial domination and realizing the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

—————————————————————————————-

Palestinian Signatories:

1. Palestinian BDS National Committee
2. The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD) 
3. Al-Haq
4. Al-Haq Europe
5. The Civic Coalition for Palestinians Right in Jerusalem
6. Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ)
7. Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
8. Filastiniyat
9. Bisan Center for Research and Development
10. Visualizing Palestine
11. The Social Development Committee (SDC)
12. The Community Action Center at Al-Quds University 
13. Law for Palestine
14. MUSAWA – Palestinian Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession 
15. Beitna – Palestinian Collective in Belgium  
16. QADER for Community Development
17. British Palestinian Committee
18. Women’s Studies Centre
19. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy- MIFTAH
20. Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation
21. Center for Refugee Rights – Aidoun
22. Defense for Children International- Palestine 
23. Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development-PWWS
24. The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared (PCMFD)
25. AMAN Coalition
26. Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
27. The Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions 
28. BuildPalestine
29. Adalah Justice Project
30. Urgence Palestine 
31. The International Commission for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian People “Hashd”
32. Friends of Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
33. Social Developmental Forum (SDF)
34. Palestinian Working Women Society for Development
35. The Psychosocial Counseling Center for Women
36. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)
37. Rihannah Society,  al-Azzeh Refugee Camp
38. Alrowwad Cultural & Arts Society
39. Reviving Gaza
40. Gaza Families Reunited
41. UK Gaza Community
42. Makan Rights
43. Sabeel – Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center

See original call

Palestinian Civil Society Unified Call to Action Ahead of NYC International Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine