The Organization of Islamic Cooperation demanded on Friday the formation of an independent probe to investigate the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people during the recent Gaza border protests.
Secretary General Yousef Al-Othaimeen said: “An international investigation in the massacre committed by Israel in Gaza is a demand that we will not waiver.”
He made his remarks during the opening of an emergency OIC summit in Istanbul aimed at tackling the recent bloodshed at the Gaza border that saw some 60 Palestinians killed by Israeli troop fire. The demonstrators were protesting the United States’ inauguration on Monday of its embassy in Jerusalem, a move that has angered the Muslim world and garnered international condemnation.
Al-Othaimeen hailed the Arab, Muslim and international stances that rejected Washington's move, praising Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, for supporting the Palestinian cause.
He also hailed in this regard the efforts of Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait and Egypt, which had opened the Rafah border crossing to take in those wounded in the Gaza bloodshed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the international community "must stop watching the massacres from the bleachers" as Palestinian youth are killed by "Israeli terror.”
The United Nations must send “an international peace force to the people of Palestine, who are losing their young children to Israeli terror every day,” he said, comparing the proposed deployment to peacekeeping forces sent to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.
In its declaration, the OIC said Israel committed "savage crimes" with the backing of US President Donald Trump's administration, emboldened by the United States' decision to recognize Jerusalem.
It said the violence should be put on the agenda of the UN Security Council and General Assembly, and called on the United Nations to investigate the killings.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah criticized the US for becoming "part of the problem and not the solution" and thereby disqualified itself as a peace process mediator by infringing on the Palestinians' "historic, legal, natural and national rights" with the embassy move.
The OIC threatened other countries considering following suit, including Guatemala, which has already made the move to Jerusalem, with "political, economic and other measures."
Jordan’s King Abdullah said the US decision five months ago to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital had “weakened the pillars of peace ... and deepened the despair that leads to violence.”
Erdogan also urged member states and others to prevent Israeli products produced in "illegal Israeli settlements" from entering their markets.
The Islamic organization also told its members to fall in line and "commit to voting for our common cause" of Jerusalem or risk punitive measures.
Most countries say the status of Jerusalem - a sacred city to Jews, Muslims and Christians - should be determined in a final peace settlement between Israel and Palestinians and that moving their embassies now would prejudge any such deal.
The violence in Gaza led to Turkey and Israel expelling each other’s senior diplomats this week. Erdogan has also traded barbs on Twitter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Guatemala this week became the second country to move its embassy to Jerusalem, and Paraguay said it would follow suit this month.
Later on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council voted to set up a commission of inquiry to look into the Israeli actions.
Meeting in a special session in Geneva, the council voted 29-2 with 14 abstentions to back a resolution that also condemned "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians."
