The Organization of Islamic Cooperation underscored on Thursday the centrality of the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem to the Muslim world, slamming Israel’s recent illegal measures in the West Bank.
The OIC General Secretariat held an extraordinary meeting in Jeddah to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian Territories.
A closing statement underlined “the need to compel Israel to implement a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and abide by the implementation of the US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.”
It called on it to move on to the second phase of the plan, ensuring the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, facilitate the return of displaced people to their homes, and “for the State of Palestine to assume its full responsibility, with Arab, Islamic, and international support, to commit to the full and normal opening of all crossings with the enclave.”
It urged Trump to “fulfill his pledges to Arab and Islamic states to prevent Israeli settlement activity, the annexation of the occupied West Bank, and forced displacement.”
It expressed “its absolute rejection and strong condemnation of the recent hostile decisions and measures taken by the illegal Israeli occupation authority, including the announcement by the so-called Israeli ‘Cabinet’ of illegal decisions aimed at imposing a colonial settlement reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.”
It deemed these decisions null and void, rejecting any form of annexation, and warning that this “dangerous escalation is a blatant new attack on the historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people, and a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law, and relevant UN resolutions.”
It called on the international community, “particularly the UN General Assembly and Security Council, to assume its responsibilities, including rejecting and condemning illegal Israeli practices and decisions, and confronting them by compelling Israel to cease all its illegal measures, which are null and void and have no legal effect under international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
It urged the international community “to take all deterrent and punitive measures and exert pressure to confront the Israeli occupation and its colonial practices, which undermine the rules of international law and destabilize the foundations of the law-based international order.
They must take all measures to that end, “particularly by severing all relations with Israel, including diplomatic, economic, trade, cultural, and parliamentary relations which perpetuate the occupation and its colonial system.”
It urged them “to leverage their international relations to impose economic and political sanctions to end the occupation.”
