Israeli troops kill 4, injure 367 in Jerusalem protests
Jurist hails Abbas’ attempts to question UN recognition of Israel
GAZA/AMMAN: Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians and wounded 367 with live ammunition on Friday, medical officials said, as protests over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital entered a second week.
Most of the casualties were on the Israel-Gaza border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to throw stones at Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said two protesters, one of them wheelchairbound, were killed and 150 wounded.
In the occupied West Bank, medics said two protesters were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli gunfire.
One of the dead was a man whom Israeli police said was shot after he stabbed a member of their unit.
Washington’s European allies and Russia have also voiced concern.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s decision is a “bomb” thrown at the entire Middle East, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The Jerusalem decision is a harbinger of new operations targeting the Islamic world,” he added.
“If Muslims fail to show the necessary reaction on this issue within the law, believe me there will be more to come.”
Palestinians are planning to appeal to the UN Security Council, and Erdogan said Muslim nations will ask the UN for an “annulment” of Trump’s decision.
The initiative will start at the Security Council, and if it is vetoed there, “we will work within the UN General Assembly for the annulment of this unjust and lawless decision,” he added.
Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad, a Fatah spokesman for international affairs, told Arab News that the US will not be able to use its veto power on this issue because it is involved in the dispute.
The UN Charter gives the Security Council’s five permanent members veto powers with one exception: Article 27-3 states that “a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.”
But Anis F. Kassim, publisher of the Palestinian Year Book for International Law, expressed doubt over whether the world body will agree that the US is party to the dispute, or refer to it as a “situation rather than a dispute.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that Israel’s legitimacy is in question because of its failure to declare its borders.
“International law stipulates that to be recognized as a state, a country has to meet three conditions: Sovereignty, population and borders. This third condition is not declared in Israel, and I challenge it to say where its borders are… Its recognition is void,” Abbas said.
Kassim said Israel’s recognition by the UN in 1949 was conditional. “Recognition followed commitments made by its representative to honor the partition plan and the right of Palestinian refugees to return,” he told Arab News.
He said while borders are a major issue in terms of recognition, it is not a deciding factor. “Many countries have been recognized without their borders being totally clarified,” he added.
But Kassim believes that recognition of Israel was conditional on the commitments made by its thenambassador to the UN regarding resolutions 181 of 1947 and 194 of 1948.