PA Slams International Silence over Settlers’ Violence in Occupied Territories
The Palestinian Authority (PA) expressed its shock that there has been no international responses to “the terror and barbaric violations” committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, stressing this “reflects double standards.”
In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the PA said that the “continuous Israeli attacks on Palestinians also reflect fake stances of the countries which claim they are human rights defenders and claim to support a two-state solution.”
These countries “are afraid to criticise the occupation state or blame it for the settler aggression and colonial racism of the Israeli Jewish settlers,” it added. An Israeli settler has been detained for attacking a female Israeli soldier, it outlined, but none for the attacking Palestinians.
The statement cited the “violent attacks carried out by the extremist Israelis against the indigenous Palestinian residents of Al-Khalil,” adding that the settlers “are protected by the Israeli occupation forces.”
The statement comes as hundreds of illegal settlers attacked Palestinians and mosques in Al-Khalil on Saturday.
Zionist settlers attacked two mosques and shattered their windows during an attack on Bab al-Zawiya neighborhood.
Heavily armed settlers guarded by Israeli forces attacked the two mosques as they held a provocative rally through the neighborhood, while shouting profanities and racist slogans at Palestinian residents.
Earlier in the day, several Palestinians sustained injuries in an attack by Israeli settlers on the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in the city. The settlers pelted stones and empty bottles at homes and physically assaulted and beat up Palestinian residents, injuring some of them.
Israeli occupation forces accompanying the settlers in their attack also arrested two Palestinian young men while they were in front of their homes in the neighborhood.
Settlers also attacked vendors’ stalls and passers-by as they walked through the alleys of the neighborhood, backed and guarded by Israeli army and police.
Settlers were escorted by notorious Israeli extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Ben-Gvir holds far-right views on the Palestinians. He had previously called for the displacement of Palestinians. He also caused a wave of escalation in occupied East Jerusalem after setting up an office in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Ben-Gvir has repeatedly joined Israeli settlers in storming the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Al-Khalil is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 500 Jewish settlers. The latter live in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
Source: Agencies
