PA Foreign Minister accuses Israel of "systematic ethnic cleansing" in Jerusalem

"Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki called on the non-aligned states and the international community to demand that Israel and its settlers account for their unceasing violations, their crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Palestinian nation, its national aspirations, and its natural right in its homeland, Palestine. In the address by the State of Palestine at the foreign ministers’ session of the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member countries in Tehran yesterday, Al-Malki said: 'The time has come to put an end to the Israeli occupation and its abuses, and to impose economic and other sanctions on the occupation, and especially on merchandise from the settlements…'. In his speech, Al-Malki addressed the recent intensive assault by the Israeli right-wing government and the settlements on Palestinian land and [Palestinian] symbols like President Mahmoud Abbas. [These assaults] , include the occupation's Foreign Minister, extremist settler Avigdor Liberman’s open incitement to murder [Abbas], as well as a severe escalation of settlement activities and Judaization in occupied Palestinian land, especially East Jerusalem. [He also said that] there have been more frequent Israeli military attacks on Palestinians and their attempts to make a living in occupied Palestinian territories, and especially in Jerusalem and its environs. He noted that these attacks are accompanied by more violence, provocations, and incitement by settlers, through their organized and systematic terror –reminiscent of the bloody events perpetrated by settler and armed gangs, like the Haganah and others, during the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) in 1948 – all under the direct protection of the occupation government and its army that targets daily the lives of [Palestinian] citizens, their property, and their holy places, including homes, mosques and churches… He noted that there was a 15% rise in these attacks last year, in addition to the illegal and unilateral Israeli measures that go hand in hand with these destructive colonialist attacks to bring about the Judaization of Jerusalem and the holy places, systematic ethnic cleansing, land seizure, and the continued construction of the racist separation fence by the occupation state."

Note: Isolated attacks by Jewish extremists on Palestinians have been condemned by the Israeli government and actions have been taken to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.