Kanaan deplores Israeli attacks in occupied Palestinian territories

AMMAN — Israeli procedures and attacks in Palestine include all forms of violence: killing, imprisonment, confiscating lands, expelling Palestinians from their lands, raiding Palestinians' Islamic and Christian holy sites and imposing restrictions on the freedoms of worship and culture, said Secretary General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Abdullah Kanaan on Sunday. 

Speaking to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on the occasion of the International Day of Non-Violence, Kanaan said that Israeli raids in various Palestinian cities and field executions against unarmed Palestinian people are evidence that Israeli violence “contradicts all values, faiths and laws”.

He added that these Israeli practices do not adhere to global calls to respect human rights, dignity and the right to self-determination, stressing that such Israeli procedures turn a deaf ear to international resolutions.

Citing some statistics on Israeli attacks in Jerusalem in September, the secretary general said that Israel conducted more than 180 arrests, allowed 4,426 settlers to break into Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, issued 37 decisions alienating worshippers from Al Aqsa Mosque and carried out 12 demolitions of homes.  

Kanaan said that the committee, on the occasion of International Day of Non-Violence, stressed the importance for the UN and its associated institutions, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to adopt a strategic operation spreading awareness of Israeli violations, urging global media to expose these violent procedures that target women, children and the elderly in occupied Palestine. 

If the UN fails to do so, “the prevailing feeling that the UN has double standards when dealing with world issues will increase”, he said.

In this regard, Kanaan urged global stakeholders to stop the Israeli occupation and cease the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people through implementing UN resolutions about the Palestinian cause, including those pertaining to the two-state solution, self-determination, and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines.