Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday strongly condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement for reviving a plan to build thousands of new settlements near East Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s remarks came ahead of national elections in Israel and are clearly meant to boost his right wing support base.
This policy violates international law and UN resolutions, said the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a strongly worded written statement. Turkish government of PM Erdogan, and AKP party, has been consistently opposing Israel over its occupation of Palestine and its settlements on Palestinian land.
Before the rise of AKP in Turkey, Ankara seldom challenged Israel on its Palestinian or Middle Eastern policies – it rather enjoyed a very cosy relationship. It all changed with the rise of AKP to power; Ankara still maintains diplomatic relationship with Tel Aviv but relations have remained strained. Israel’s move to build more settlements has come after failure of recently proposed Israel-Palestine Deal.
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its statement, said that Israeli administration had repeatedly disregarded international law before every election and usurped the rights of Palestinians, which has become a pattern for Tel Aviv. Notably, the statement noted that Israel was encouraged by the U.S., which recently announced a so-called peace plan called “Deal of the Century.”
It concluded that Palestinians were the sole owner of their own lands and the occupant policies of Israel would never alter that fact.
Dear brothers and sisters, you can also see what Israel did in my home in the 2014 war. You can see with your own eyes what Israel is doing in Gaza and what you did in my house. I have posted a lot about my house, but unfortunately no one hears me pic.twitter.com/dbWGjRcR7m
— My name is Ibrahim. (@SvVWCXnon3EBh9r) February 22, 2020
Pakistan also condemned Trump’s deal for Palestine
Pakistan’s Senate or upper house of parliament unanimously adopted a resolution rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial Middle East peace plan announced last month.
The resolution, tabled by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan from Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s main religious party, was supported by all treasury and opposition members, state-run Pakistan Television reported.
Expressing concern over Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century,” which declared Jerusalem the “capital of Israel,” the senators said it was tantamount to an instrument of humiliating surrender by Palestinians to their oppressors.
The resolution also called for the issue to be fairly and peacefully resolved in light of UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, including the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, the safe return of all Palestinians to their homes and lands currently in illegitimate possession of Israeli settlers in breach of international law and a halt to acts of aggression against Palestinians.
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It further urged the government to take steps to summon special sessions of the UN General Assembly and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to work out a consensus-based strategy “with due regard to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as recognized by international law” for the amicable settlement of the Palestinian issue.
Trump unveiled his so-called “peace deal” during a press conference at the White House on Jan. 28 alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His plan overwhelmingly eschews international consensus on the conflict, denying Palestinian refugees their right of return and enormously shrinking their borders within the West Bank.
The Saudis want to give Jerusalem away to Israel that is why they are so against Turkey
— Opinion Turkey (@opinion_turkey) February 22, 2020
The plan also unilaterally annuls previous UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and recognizes illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Among the details of Trump’s plan, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided capital,” a call which has prompted a fierce rebuke from the Muslim world.
Trump’s proposal also requires the “firm rejection of terrorism” from Palestinians and includes the recognition of a “contiguous” Palestinian state that would “double the Palestinian territory” over time once certain conditions are met. Israel would be granted sovereignty over the whole of the Jordan Valley in the eastern swath of the occupied West Bank.
Read more: In the Name of Peace: US-Israel Peace Plan
Trump released via Twitter a copy of his “conceptual map” for a two-state solution that included greatly reduced Palestinian territory in the West Bank, which also included 15 “Israeli Enclave Communities” linked by Israeli access roads that cut through the envisioned Palestinian territory. That would recognize Israeli sovereignty over existing settlements, which are illegal under international law.
GVS News Desk with additional input from Anadolu & other Agencies.