League calls for probe into Israeli crimes
cairo — The Arab League called on Thursday for an international probe into alleged crimes by Israeli forces against Palestinians following mass protests on the Gaza border that saw dozens of demonstrators killed.
Tens of thousands have protested along Gaza’s border with Israel since March 30 calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their homes now inside Israel.
The largest demonstrations coincided with the move of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem on Monday, which saw Israeli forces kill some 60 Palestinians.
“We call for a credible international investigation into the crimes committed by the occupation,” Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said at an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the violence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will on Friday host an emergency summit in Istanbul of the world’s main pan-Islamic body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which he said would send a “strong message to the world”.
Erdogan, who also announced plans for a pro-Palestinian rally, has exchanged bitter accusations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling Israel an “apartheid state” and ordering the country’s ambassador to Turkey to leave.
Weeks of protests and clashes along the border may be reaching an end as the holy month of Ramadan begins, but the death toll has led to international condemnations of Israel and calls for an independent investigation.
“We are facing a state of blatant aggression against international law and legitimacy which was embodied by the US embassy’s transfer in the occupying state to Jerusalem,” said Abul Gheit. —
cairo — Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki suggested on Thursday that Arab countries should recall their ambassadors to the United States in response to Washington moving its Israel embassy to occupied Jerusalem.
“There is no harm in Arab states collectively recalling their ambassadors in Washington to their capitals for consultations,” Maliki said in live televised remarks at the Arab League in Cairo.
The United States opened its new Israel embassy in occupied Jerusalem on Monday in a controversial move from Tel Aviv that has brought wide condemnation. Israeli soldiers killed dozens of Palestinians who protested in the Gaza Strip while the embassy opened.
Maliki also said members of the Arab League, whose foreign ministers gathered in Cairo on Thursday for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the issue, should summon US ambassadors “to remind them of the Arab rejection of the US embassy’s transfer to Jerusalem”.
He said Arab states had agreed at previous summit meetings that they would cut ties with any country that moves its embassy to Jerusalem. — Reuters