Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" in East Jerusalem by banning the building of Palestinian houses and cutting the city off from the occupied West Bank. Abbas told a summit of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), being held in Senegal's capital Dakar, the success of U.S.-brokered peace talks depended on Israel showing readiness to live up to the spirit of the process.
"Our people in the city (Jerusalem) are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions such as imposing heavy taxes, banning construction and closing Palestinian institutions in addition to separating the city from the West Bank by the racist separation wall," Abbas said, according to Reuters. "What is taking place on the ground today is in total violation of (the peace process)," he said.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert condemned Abbas' comments as inflammatory. Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said: "The peace process faces many obstacles and leadership should not be contributing to those obstacles through inflammatory statements."
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation OIC told the Islamic summit that Israelis responsible for attacks on Palestinians should be tried before an international war crimes court. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Israel must stop using "disproportionate and excessive" force against Palestinians.
