ORGANISATION of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary-general Hissein Brahim Taha today denounced Israel’s continued oppression of the Palestinian people and its assault on the Islamic sites in Jerusalem.

The OIC chief said the Palestinian issue is central to the 57-member organisation and demanded an end to Israel’s policies of illegal Jewish settlements, “Judaisation” of Jerusalem and repeated attacks on the historic city’s Muslim sites, including the Al Aqsa Mosque.

He accused Israel of carrying out murders of Palestinians, confiscation of their lands, arbitrary arrests, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. 

“These illegal practices constitute a flagrant violation of the relevant international laws, covenants and resolutions,” the OIC secretary-general said in his address to the 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan. 

He called on OIC members to “strengthen the spirit of solidarity and joint Islamic action” in view of “these Israeli crimes and attacks against the Palestinian people”. 

The OIC chief in his speech talked about a number of international issues, including the Rohingya crisis, Jammu and Kashmir, and the wars in Yemen and Ukraine.

He said “the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is also a just cause” for the OIC and criticised India’s abrogation of the Muslim-majority region’s decades-old limited autonomous status in August 2019.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in their speeches during the opening session strongly raised the Jammu and Kashmir issue. – Bernama, March 22, 2022.