Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. Photo: WEF.

JERUSALEM – The Legal Forum for Israel, a body representing hundreds of lawyers and jurists from various countries, sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon last week demanding that he retract all acceptance within the UN of the Palestinian Authority and  reject Palestinian requests to accede to international conventions.

Referencing the recent abduction of three Israeli boys from Gush Etzion, author Alan Baker, former legal adviser of Israel’s foreign ministry, wrote: “We are, first and foremost, at the time of writing this letter, most distressed at the tragic situation in which one or more Palestinian terror groups, affiliated to what you and the UN regard as the ‘State of Palestine,’ considered to be a non-member state observer in the UN, have taken three Israeli youths hostage, in clear violation of all basic humanitarian norms and conventions. We feel that this action, together with the dangerous situation presently prevailing, is directly connected to, and emanates from the enhanced status that you and the UN have attributed to this Palestinian entity. By any basic criterion of international law and practice, this entity should never have been, and cannot be considered to be a state.”

Baker added that by granting such status, the UN violated and undermined the Oslo Accords, the very agreements between the PLO and Israel for which the UN has consistently expressed its clear support.

Baker pointed out that the situation is all the more absurd in light of the recent incorporation of the Hamas terror group into the governing structure of the Palestinian Authority,  an action welcomed by the UN and the Secretary General himself. “No one, not even the UN, can deny the fact that the Hamas terror organization is universally recognized as such. Hence the absurdity of the UN’s situation in hosting within its own ranks a terrorist entity,” stated Baker.

Baker attacked the UN for its quick acceptance of the PA’s signing of international treaties. “In the same vain, it is no less inconceivable, both legally and morally, that you and the UN recently rushed within days to accept the request addressed to you by ‘the State of Palestine’ to accede to international conventions – including, ironically and cynically, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, presently being blatantly violated by the Palestinian Authority. This present, ongoing child hostage situation carried out by elements within that ‘Palestinian government of national consensus’ only accentuates the cynical and embarrassing situation into which you and the UN have permitted yourselves to be drawn by Palestinian manipulation.”

Finally, Baker demanded action on the part of the UN: “In view of the fact that the Palestinian non-member state observer has now become an openly identified terrorist entity, we feel that it is incumbent upon you and the organization to act immediately to retract all acceptance and status within the UN of this terrorist entity, and to reject the Palestinian request to accede to international conventions, under the misleading and fraudulent claim that it is a state.”

Baker further stated that he was shocked by the “the UN’s, the Secretary-General’s and the international community’s hypocrisy and selective one sided attitude. They are all ready to condemn Israel and to establish inquiry committees on everything Israel does, but ignore the significant damage against Israel and against all humanitarian norms.”