The Palestinian people mark June 5^th this year, with grief pain and sorrow, 50^thanniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank including Jerusalem. It is the second stage of the prolonged Zionist's colonial and settlement project at the expense of the Palestinian people and their national rights after the 1948 exodus ''Nakba".

In spite of the occupation's numerous plans, projects and measures for the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967; which over the past years aimed at changing the status quo through land confiscation, settlement construction, imposition control over resources, imposition of restrictions over freedom of movement and of policy of fragmentation and division, our people still adhere to their national constants of which the forth most are the right to return, self determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State.

The successive Israeli occupation governments have used the Oslo Accords and the course of negotiations as a cover to impose facts on the ground by intensifying settlements building and entrenching the policy of isolation and Bantustans. Thereby, they undermined the chances of establishing an independent State of Palestine or implementing the so-called "two-state solution" by exploiting the state of internal division erupted in 2007 and isolating Gaza from the West Bank, tightening the blockade and continuing aggression against the Gaza Strip as well as the strangling the West Bank through settlement building, imposing control over the areas behind the separation wall and the area of the Jordan Valley, Judaization of Jerusalem, and entrenching the status quo. This reflects the ambitions of the occupation and blocks any prospects for a serious political process that would lead our people to achieve freedom and independence.

 This situation affirm the need to reinforce the achievements through investing the International Court of Justice of decision in 2004 on the Apartheid Wall, activate the issue of the Israeli occupation crimes in the International Criminal Court and complete the membership of the State of Palestine in the international forums, not to mention the need to support the boycott movement and disinvestment, impose sanctions on the Occupation State, mobilize a wide campaign of popular and international solidarity, and strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people. These bases constitute essential mean to reach the Palestinian people's goal to achieve national freedom and independence instead of betting on resuming negotiations that lack clear terms of reference and lack the conditions of halting settlements and releasing the prisoners.

 It is time for our people including the national and social figures and human rights activists to take a moment of serious pause to review the achievements of the past 50 years, in order to draw lessons and work to stop the deterioration as well as to strive to stimulate the components of the national identity that are unprecedently exposed to the risks of fragmentation and threat.

An eloquent response to the 50^th anniversary of Israel's brutal occupation, lies in ending the division, achieving national unity, and achieving agreement on national, social and human rights platform and on the basis of partnership rather than domination and exclusion.

The Palestinian NGO's Network, hence, emphasizes the following:

• The Palestinian people will continue to struggle for their rights to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian State with a capital in Jerusalem. They are uphold to the right of return, self-determination and the right for ending the occupation.


• The Palestinian people will continue to struggle to achieve the political, legal and geographical unity to enhance their steadfastness.


• The international community must carry its legal and moral responsibilities to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for violations of international law and international conventions.


• It is important to find a just solution to the Palestinian issue and to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people to promote the international security, peace and stability on the basis of international legitimacy resolutions.


• The continuation of the Israeli occupation's aggression, blockade, isolation and the collective punishment of 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and depriving them of their most basic rights, destroy the elements of the Palestinian life at various levels.


• The United Nations as a neutral body should not bow to pressure from the Israeli occupation to change its principles, and should not ignore the Israeli occupation's continued and cumulative violations of international law.