Muslim Summit Calls For ‘Int’l Force’ To Protect Palestinians

Ankara—Member states of the Organization of Islamic Coopera­tion (OIC) on Friday condemned “savage crimes” committed by Israeli against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called the international community to pro­vide protection for the Palestin­ian people.

According to the final com­munique, the leaders from Islamic countries called on the UN Securi­ty Council, the UN General Assem­bly, the UN Secretary General, UN Human Rights Council, the special rapporteurs and the UN High Com­missioner for Human Rights to take “necessary actions to form an international investigation com­mittee into the recent atrocities in the Gaza Strip.”

The Istanbul summit was at­tended by several heads of state, but Saudi Arabia, the host of the 57-member OIC, sent only a for­eign ministry official. Saudi allies Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE also deployed lower level ministers.

Meanwhile the summit reaf­firmed the importance of the Pal­estinian cause and the status of Je­rusalem to the Muslim world and once again rejected the U.S. deci­sion to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The declaration also declared “determination to take the ap­propriate political, economic and other measures” against countries which follow the U.S.’ suit in rec­ognizing the holy city as the Israeli capital and move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Speaking at the beginning of the summit, President Re­cep Tayyip Erdogan urged the Muslim world to unite against Israeli attacks on Palestinian at the OIC Summit on Jerusalem in Istanbul.

In his opening address during the ongoing extraordinary sum­mit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Erdogan said: “I will say openly and clearly that what Israel is doing is banditry, brutality and state terror.”

“To take action for Palestinians massacred by Israeli bandits is to show the whole world that human­ity is not dead,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish president de­scribed Israel’s killing of Palestin­ians as “thuggery, atrocity and state terror,” and said the US’ rec­ognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would inevitably haunt it.

“There is no difference between the atrocity faced by the Jewish people in Europe 75 years ago and the brutality that our Gaza broth­ers are subjected to,” he said.

“Muslims will not take even one step back from their claims in the East Jerusalem.”

Monday’s protests in Gaza coin­cided with Israel’s 70th anniversary – an event Palestinians refer to as Nakba or the “Catastrophe” – and the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Is­rael from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Since the mass Gaza rallies began on March 30, more than 100 Palestinian protesters have been martyred by Israeli army gunfire.

Last week, the Israeli govern­ment claimed that the ongoing pro­tests constitute a “state of war” in which international humanitarian law does not apply.

For his part, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the US had become “part of the problem and not the solution” and called the relocation of the embas­sy “an act of aggression against the Islamic nation, against Muslims and Christians”.

Jordanian King Abdullah II urged for the adoption of urgent measures to back “the resistance of Palestinians”, while Iranian Presi­dent Hasan Rouhani called for economic and political measures against the US and Israel.

Rouhani slammed Israel’s recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds, and offered a number of proposals on how to put an end to such hostile policies.

“In order to assist the Pales­tinian nation and counter the de­structive decision by [US President Donald] Trump, we call on Muslim governments and freedom-seeking nations in the world to revise their political, economic and commer­cial ties with the US administra­tion, and also cut all their relations with the occupying Zionist regime [of Israel] and boycott the products and companies of the Zionists,” Rouhani said.

At least 62 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,700 others wounded near the Gaza fence on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Je­rusalem al-Quds.

The occupied territories have witnessed new tensions ever since Trump on December 6, 2017, an­nounced Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capi­tal” and said the United States would move the US embassy to the city.

Rouhani also offered five other suggestions, namely ex­amination of the “illegal” relo­cation of the US embassy and Israel’s recent crimes in Gaza at a UN General Assembly meeting, formation of an OIC expert group to formulate the required strategies, delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestine, dismantling of Isra­el’s nuclear weapons and inclu­sion of the International Quds Day in the official calendars of all Islamic countries.

Speaking at the conference, Qa­tar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Ha­mad Al Thani said the Palestinian cause had “become a symbol for op­pressed peoples everywhere” and condemned Israel for “brutal mas­sacre” of peaceful demonstrators.

“Who among us does not know the declared siege forced on Gaza Strip and collective punishment against its population?” the emir said.

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