Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki blasted Israel on Sunday, calling it an “apartheid state” that is practicing “crimes and brutality against our people in Gaza.”
He made the statement at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s emergency virtual meeting over the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank, Malki said the latest round of violence that began on Monday has displaced 10,000 people.
“The rise of the Palestinian people has made it clear that Jerusalem is a red line,” Malki said. He added that “our people will not be exhausted by Israel’s killing machine.”
Malki said all of Israel’s attempts to make demographic changes in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem will fail.
He urged Muslim countries to support the Palestinian people by all means, calling on them to impose political and economic sanctions against Israel
He later told the UN Security Council in its first public meeting on the conflict that "each time Israel hears a foreign leader speak of its right to defend itself it is further emboldened to continue murdering entire families in their sleep."
“There are no words that can describe the horrors that our people are enduring,” he said, listing families and children and infants killed by Israeli airstrikes.
“Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza, one family at a time,” he said. “Israel is trying to uproot Palestinians from Jerusalem. It’s expelling families, one home, neighborhood at a time. Israel is executing our people, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The Palestinian minister then challenged the Security Council, asking: “How many Palestinians killed is enough for a condemnation? What is the threshold of outrage?”
