Muslim Leaders Call for Intl. Protection Force for Palestinians
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Muslim leaders called on Friday for an international force to be deployed to protect Palestinians after dozens of protesters were shot dead by Israeli forces on the Gaza border this week.
At a special summit in Turkey convened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, they also pledged to take “appropriate political (and) economic measures” against countries that followed the United States in moving their Israel embassies to Jerusalem (al-Quds) from Tel Aviv, Reuters reported.
Erdogan verbally attacked Israel, comparing the actions of its forces to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews in World War Two.
He also castigated the United States, saying its decision to move its embassy had emboldened Israel to put down the protests at the border with Gaza with excessive force.
The final declaration of the meeting of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation described the killing of over 60 Palestinians, protesting the embassy move on Monday, as “savage crimes committed by the Israeli forces with the backing of the US administration”.
It said the violence should be put on the agenda of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and called on the United Nations to investigate the killings.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said the US decision five months ago to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital had “weakened the pillars of peace ... and deepened the despair that leads to violence.”
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslim countries “to totally cut their relations with the Zionist regime (Israel) and also to revise their trade and economic ties with America”.
Erdogan described Israel as “terrorist state”.
“The children of those being subject to all sorts of torture in concentration camps during World War Two are now attacking Palestinians with methods that would put Nazis to shame,” Erdogan said on Friday shortly after addressing a rally of thousands of people in support of Palestinians.
The United Nations must send “an international peace force to the people of Palestine, who are losing their young children to Israeli terror every day,” Erdogan said, comparing the proposed deployment to peacekeeping forces sent to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
The violence in Gaza led to Turkey and Israel expelling each other’s senior diplomats this week. Erdogan has also traded barbs on Twitter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
