The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today denounced the escalation in attacks and crimes carried out by Israeli forces and settler militias and terrorists against Palestinian civilians, their land, properties, homes, and holy sites. The ministry, in a press statement, condemned the recent attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including their latest attack against the defenseless Palestinian civilians in the village of Qasra in Nablus, the attacks against shepherds in al-Mughayyir village in Ramallah, and the uprooting of around 74 olive trees in the town of Ni'lin to the west of Ramallah. The statement held the Israeli government, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fully and directly responsible for the attacks by settler militias and their dangerous repercussions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ministry stressed that the low level and weak international reaction and positions toward settlers' crimes and attacks and failure to implement the United Nations resolutions related to the Palestinian issue perpetuate the occupation, deepen the apartheid regime, and encourage extremist settler terrorist organizations to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people. The foreign ministry affirmed that the protection provided by certain major countries to the occupation state secures its persistent impunity, deepens the injustice and oppression inflicted upon the Palestinian people and the appropriation of more land for the benefit of settlement expansion, as well as undermines any chance for the embodiment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Source: Palestine news & Information Agency - WAFA