DAKAR — The Palestinian cause and the sufferings of the civilian population under the yoke of the Israeli occupation figured high in speeches delivered at the opening of theIslamic summit on Thursday, March 13.
"Our people in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told leaders of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) 57 member states.
He cited heavy taxes, banning the building or rebuilding of Palestinian homes, closing Palestinian institutions and separating the holy city from the occupied West Bank by the separation wall, reported Reuters.
Palestinians have to go through elaborate bureaucratic processes to get a building permit and believe the Israeli rules are meant to force them to leave the city.
Palestine Holocaust Museum "What is taking place on the ground today is in total violation of the peace process," Abbas told the two-day summit.
Israeli rights groups disclosed last month that Jewish settlers are digging awork of tunnels under Muslim areas in Al-Quds, largely based on historical water wells or buried pilgrim routes.
They say after creating "facts on the ground" in the occupied West Bank, Jewish settlers are trying to establish facts under the ground as well.
Israel captured and occupied the holy city of Al-Quds in the six-day 1967 war before annexing it in a move not recognized by the world community or the UN.
Al-Quds is home to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Islam's third holiest shrine, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Palestinians insist the city will be the capital of their future independent state and fear Israel's building of settlements is an attempt to dilute their presence in the city and cut them off from the West Bank.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem complain of having to go through elaborate bureaucratic processes to get a building permit and believe the rules are meant to force them to leave the city.
Taking the floor, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians.
"Israel's disproportionate and excessive use of force has killed and injured many civilians including children," he told Muslim leaders.
"I condemn these actions and call on Israel to cease such acts."
An Israeli ground and air blitz late in February claimed the lives of nearly 130 Palestinians, including 40 children and 13 women, in less than ten days.
The rest of the dead were mostly civilians.
Israeli aircraft hit earlier Thursday targets in the northern Gaza Strip, effectively ending a five day lull.
Undercover Israeli special forces raid the West Bank town of Bethlehem Wednesday and killed four Palestinians.
"Israel will have to assume all the consequences of its barbaric crimes against our people," Abbas office said in a rare harshly-worded statement earlier Thursday.
The UN chief said "the situation in the Middle East remains precarious"
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, head of the OCI for the next year, asked Israel to end "all of its illegal activities in the occupied territories…the blind repression inflicted on the Palestinian people."
He called for a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians to pave the way for peace talks.
"As president of our organization I will make my priority the Palestinian problem and the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state inside secure frontiers."
Wade also offered to host a conference between rival Palestinian groups to try to "establish a unique federal, collegiate leadership".
Source: IslamOnline |
