Muslim nations on Friday condemned Israel and the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as a "provocation and hostility against" the Islamic world, with Turkey's president calling for action, including the deployment of a peacekeeping force.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the rotating term president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, convened an extraordinary summit of the organization in Istanbul, which issued a communique Friday "reaffirming the centrality of the Palestinian cause."
Turkey has taken a leading role in condemning Israel's response to the ongoing riots on the Gaza border in recent weeks. Last Monday, at least 60 Palestinians – 50 of whom were members of Hamas, according to the organization's own reports – were killed, and hundreds wounded in the deadliest day of cross-border violence since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
Speaking at the summit's closing late Friday, Erdogan said the international community "must stop watching the massacres from the bleachers" as Palestinian youths are killed by "Israeli terrorism." He proposed an international peacekeeping force to protect Palestinian protesters.
In its declaration, the OIC said Israel had committed "savage crimes," with the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, and accused Israel of using "excessive force" in its response to the Gaza border riots and repeated attempts to breach the border.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah criticized the U.S. for becoming "part of the problem and not the solution" by establishing an embassy in Jerusalem. He said the U.S. had 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 any country considering a similar embassy relocation to Jerusalem, as well as Guatemala, which has already made the move to Jerusalem, with "political, economic and other measures."
Earlier, as the summit participants broke their Ramadan fast, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the Trump administration a "dangerous threat" to global peace and security. Rouhani said Muslim nations should consider "revising" political and economic ties with the U.S., and called on the international community to "cut ties" with Israel and boycott it through trade.
"If Israel faces a united front of Islamic nations, it will never be able to continue its crimes," Rouhani said. He cited the example of the "new and young generation of Palestine who is aware of their rights and has no intention to withdraw or compromise."
Erdogan also urged member states and others to prevent Israeli products produced in "illegal Israeli settlements" from entering their markets.
Earlier, at the summit, the Turkish president likened Israel's actions in Gaza to the Holocaust, saying: "The children of those who were subjected to all sorts of torture in concentration camps during World War II are now attacking Palestinians with methods that would put Nazis to shame."
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.
Turkey's foreign minister had criticized certain members for voting against, abstaining from, or not showing up to the United Nations vote in December in which 128 countries overwhelmingly supported the U.N. against Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
