RAMALLAH, Palestine
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has hailed Palestinian-Turkish relations as “solid and strong.”
"The Palestinian-Turkish ties have been solid and strong for a long time, and we are working to strengthen them in every way," al-Maliki told Anadolu Agency.
Al-Maliki is scheduled to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who will visit the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday.
"We are proud of our relations with Turkey, and there is a relationship between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that moves on all levels,” al-Maliki said.
The top diplomat said Ramallah and Ankara are working together “to lift the injustice and end the suffering of the Palestinian people, including (helping them achieve) their right to self-determination."
"We are confident that the efforts made by the Turkish state will serve the interest of the Palestinian people," al-Maliki said, noting that the second round of the Palestinian-Turkish ministerial committee will also take place during Cavusoglu’s visit “to consolidate bilateral relations between the two countries."
Israeli violations
Meanwhile, al-Maliki accused Israel of “exploiting the lack of accountability” by the international community to commit more violations against the Palestinians.
“Israel must be held accountable for its crimes,” he said, going on to slam the “weakness and inaction of the international community” towards the Israeli violations.
"The international community contributed to creating the Palestinian cause, and it must contribute to putting an end to this suffering," he stressed.
Al-Maliki cited Israeli plans to build thousands of settlement units in the Palestinian area of Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank as an example of Israel’s latest violations against Palestinians.
He said the Palestinians there “are reliving the Nakba as Israel attempts to expel them from their homes.”
The Nakba, or Catastrophe, refers to the 1948 forced expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in historical Palestine to make way for the creation of the state of Israel.
Slain journalist
Al-Maliki said the Palestinian Authority has submitted a file about the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On May 11, Abu Akleh, 51, was covering an Israeli military raid near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank when she was shot dead. Palestinian officials and her employer, Al Jazeera, said she was killed by Israeli forces.
"Abu Akleh’s killing was a crime,” al-Maliki said. “We have documented (the crime) and submitted a file about it to the ICC prosecutor alongside other Israeli violations,” he said.
Al-Maliki called on The Hague-based court to add Abu Akleh’s death to other crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians to facilitate an official investigation and bring Israel to accountability.
US-Palestine ties
As for the Palestinian-US relations, al-Maliki expressed dissatisfaction on the “very slow implementation of the promises of the administration of President Joe Biden (towards Palestine)."
Washington’s position has been "shy and traditional … and continues to shield Israel from accountability and questioning," he said.
Despite this, al-Maliki said Palestine wants to give the US another opportunity to prove that “it does not apply double standards” regarding the Palestinian issue.ü
"The US administration must prove that it is committed to providing justice to the Palestinian people, and does everything possible to achieve the two-state solution and end the occupation."
He also called on Washington not to allow its preoccupation with the Ukrainian crisis and other global concerns to trivialize the Palestinian issue.
"The American administration does not act unless it feels that the issue will disturb Israel and affect its relations with neighboring countries," he explained.
Kach movement
Al-Maliki also described a recent US decision to remove radical Jewish group Kach from the list of foreign terror organizations as a “sin”.
"We were surprised by this step that came from the American administration, because the Kach movement still exists through Kahane's heirs in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament)," the minister said.
On Friday, the US Department of State removed five extremist groups from its list of foreign terrorist organizations, including Kach movement.
The Jewish movement is classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and Israel itself, where its founder Meir Kahane was banned from participating in the elections in 1988.
"The movement's heirs are still expressing their hatred of the Palestinian people, and calling for the expulsion of our people from their land and now the US gives them freedom and legitimacy,” al-Maliki remarked.
"This is a sin,” said the minister. “We have expressed our rejection of this decision and demanded (that the US) reverse it, and we are working to provide documents that prove that this movement is (still) a terrorist group."
*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar
