Occupied Jerusalem – MEMO. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel on Saturday of targeting the Christian community in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, the Palestinian News Agency reported. Anadolu.
In a statement, the ministry said it “unequivocally condemns the recent actions of Israel, an illegal occupying power, to impose taxes on churches, their institutions and their properties in the occupied city of Jerusalem, through the so-called ‘occupation municipality’.”
“These actions are a clear violation of international law and the historical and legal ‘Status Quo’ of the city,” the ministry added.
The ministry stressed that “the imposition of these taxes by Israel is illegal,” adding that “Israel, as an occupying power, has no sovereignty over Jerusalem.”
“These illegal measures are perceived as part of a broader strategy of extermination and ethnic cleansing that Israel is practicing against all Palestinian people, in particular targeting the authentic Palestinian Christian presence in the Holy Land, especially in Jerusalem,” he said the ministry.
The ministry invited “all countries to support the positions of the Churches and the State of Palestine and to intervene to stop these serious violations of international law, of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and of the historical and legal status quo”.
The ministry’s statements were released in response to Israel’s notification to several churches of “legal” measures aimed at forcing them to pay taxes.
In defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation for its continued brutal offensive on Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Since then, more than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and another 86,800 have been injured, according to local health authorities.
More than eight months into Israel’s war, vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins due to a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt operations in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had taken refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
(Photo: Bilal Salem – Anadolu Agency).
