Palestinian Foreign Minister Condemns Arab-Israeli Normalization as Supporting ’Apartheid’

"Normalization [...] with this Israeli colonial system without having achieved peace and the end of the Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian lands represents support for the apartheid regime and participation in its crimes," said Riyad al-Maliki during a virtual meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) organized by Saudi Arabia. "We must confront and end this colonial occupation, dismantle it and prohibit it. The recent accelerated normalization will have no impact on the feelings (of people) in the Arab world and will not change their analysis," the Palestinian foreign minister stressed.

Since last week, there has been an escalation of tensions between Israel and Palestine. The OIC "strongly condemned the barbaric attacks launched by Israel [...] against the Palestinian people, on their land and their holy sites," according to a joint statement. The organization called for a cessation of hostilities that not only endanger the lives of civilians but also increase the "risks of instability" in the region.

In turn, the UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem al-Hashimy, called for a halt to the violence. According to her, the normalization agreements with Israel, denounced as a "betrayal" by the Palestinians, have broken the Arab consensus that no agreement is possible with the Hebrew state without a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As for Saudi Arabia, the organizer of the OIC meeting, through its Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan, called on the international community to "act urgently." "Preserving Jerusalem is our collective responsibility," he said.

Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, reacted by saying that the displacement of residents from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem is "a war crime that the international community should not allow." According to him, Israel "is pushing the entire region towards more tension."