A petition against the French Prime Minister's statement regarding considering Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people

We, the undersigned individuals; Muslim and Christian clergies, politicians, academics, intellectuals, human rights activists, jurists, scholars, artists, trade unionists, address this message to the State of France and the French people, world public opinion, and we invite others to join us in signing this document.

We condemn, denounce, and reject in the strongest terms the statement made by Mr. Jean Castex, Prime Minister of the Republic of France on behalf of the French President, at the annual dinner held at CRIF on Friday, February 25, 2022, in which he “emphasized once again that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”

This statement is a flagrant violation of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, specifically UN Security Council Resolutions N. 478 and 2334, the principles of justice and the historical rights of the Palestinian people, and France’s political position and commitment to the two-state solution on the basis of June 4, 1967 and its permanent quest to achieve a just and comprehensive peace and the principles of French Revolution.

This statement does not constitute a flagrant violation of all these principles, values ​​, and laws, but also support and encouragement for the Israeli occupation state in its racist practices and crimes of ethnic cleansing that it practices daily in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan and all the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Beita, Gaza and all the occupied territories, whose victims are children, women, the elderly and the defenseless. As a result, the suffering of millions of Palestinian people is increasing.

Jerusalem is the cradle of the monotheistic religions and the capital of the Palestinian Arab people since the Stone Age,  the actual beginning of the process of occupying Palestine, stripping the rights of the Palestinian people and denying their existence as a people aspiring to sovereignty, independence and self-determination, began with a statement of James Arthur Balfour (2.11.1917) which was against morals and human values ​​and the rules of international and humanitarian law, human rights and the basic right of peoples to self-determination, with which France, unfortunately, was a partner.  Its effect was the occupation of Palestine, displacing the vast majority of the Palestinian people, depriving them of their independence and depriving them of the right to self-determination, instead of committing grave crimes against them such as extermination, torture, abuse, and exile, and depriving them of embodying their national and national aspirations for independence and sovereignty.

This statement clearly announced the colonial scheme to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine more than two years before its mandate and repudiated the Palestinian people, who constituted 93% of the population of Palestine who had existed since the Stone Age on their land, describing them as non-Jewish sects without naming them as a Palestinian people and without recognizing any political rights or sovereignty over them. At a time when all rights were granted to the Jews, who constituted only 7% of the population of Palestine, they came as refugees as part of a plan to strengthen the Jewish presence in Palestine. The declaration would constitute a black page in the history of mankind and human morals, from which more than 14 million Palestinians still suffer.

Accordingly, we affirm that Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem is illegal and illegitimate and an ongoing crime that does not give it a right in Jerusalem, and we call on France to retract this statement and apologize to the Palestinian people, and support their legitimate rights and struggles, which are confirmed by all international laws and norms. We also look forward to France’s recognition of the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital on the borders 4th of June, 1967.