Amr Moussa elected head of Egypt's Constitution-writing panel (Photo: Reuters)
Former Secretary-General of the Arab League (AL) Amr Moussa said on Tuesday that the “brave and besieged Palestinian people deserve from the Arabs a respectable and strong stance to support their national movement,” in response to the Israeli assaults in Jerusalem.
“Many of the world’s countries and their societies appreciate the plight of the Palestinian people and support them, so what should Arabs be doing?” Moussa wrote on Twitter.
“What is happening in Jerusalem and what is going on between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation confirm that the Palestinian is alive and did not die,” said Moussa.
Israel’s police have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque several times during the past week amid Palestinian protests sparked by the planned Israeli eviction of many families in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
The Israeli police have injured hundreds of unarmed Palestinian protesters during the clashes around Al-Aqsa in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israeli in 1967, by using rubber bullets and stun grenades.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has launched rocket attacks against Israel in retaliation to Israeli aggression against Al-Aqsa and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, killing five Israelis.
Israel retaliated by bombing Gaza, leaving more than 50 dead and dozens injured.
He added that the incidents in Jerusalem also confirm that “what the Trump administration had done and the normalisation [agreements] that took place have not broken the insistence of the Palestinian people to respect their identity and adhere to their lands and rights.”
In 2017, former US president Donald Trump recognised all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Moussa affirmed that the “moment is approaching for Arabs to return to a respectable stance toward what is taking place from the Israeli occupation authorities.”
Moussa, a one-time foreign minister of Egypt, also called on the Palestinians to carry out their planned elections.
Earlier this week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed the long-awaited parliamentary elections previously scheduled for later this month, saying Israel did not confirm it would allow voting in occupied East Jerusalem.
“Just as the Palestinians demand that their Arab brothers be at the forefront of their supporters, Arabs expect from [the Palestinians] a strong political movement… towards conducting elections,” Moussa said.
He noted that the planned elections would “enable [the Palestinian] people to move forward with a language that the world appreciates and interacts with.”
Moussa underscored that the elections would be effective “at a time when the future of the region is being redrawn,” affirming that the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital must have a place in the region’s future.
“The Palestinians’ cause requires a bold political movement that sends a message [that] the Palestinian people are capable of self-determination,” Moussa added.
On Tuesday, the Arab League held an extraordinary meeting during which it strongly condemned the Israeli actions in Jerusalem and voiced full solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The Arab League announced a number of decisions that seek to halt the Israeli violations including calling on the International Criminal Court to proceed with its planned probe into Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity against unarmed Palestinians.
It also formed a seven-member ministerial committee tasked with lobbying permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and other influential states to take steps to halt Israeli aggression in East Jerusalem.
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