‘No peace in Palestine until Israel ends occupation'

ANKARA

Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Saturday there will be no peace in Palestine unless Israel ends its occupation.

Writing for the Istanbul-based Daily Sabah, Kalin said: “The problem is the occupation and without ending it, there will be no peace, no security, no prosperity for anyone.

“Thanks to the irresponsible and populist policies of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, peace has never been as far away as it is today.”

“Muslim countries, Europeans, Africans, Asian nations and Latin American countries must come together to stop the downward spiral of blatant violations of international law by Israel and the unjust punishment of the Palestinians,” Kalin added.

The number of Palestinians martyred by Israeli gunfire during Monday’s protests on eastern Gaza Strip rose to 64 on Saturday. Hundreds more were injured.

The protests were part of weeks-long rallies marking the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" or "The Catastrophe" -- and relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Since the rallies began on March 30, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli gunfire, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

“This is pretty much the end of the Donald Trump administration's role in the Middle East peace process,” Kalin wrote.

He said the U.S. move of relocating its embassy “also undermined any remaining hope for a two-state solution”, calling it “the last nail in the coffin".

Trump sparked an international outcry last December when he unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and vowed to relocate the U.S. Embassy to the city.

Kalin said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu cannot cover up his crimes and domestic troubles by attacking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan".

“He may enjoy the relative silence of the international community and the disunity and lethargy of the Arab world, but he can never break the will of the Palestinian people and our support for them."

Kalin also accused European and American media of not “telling the truth” on the Gaza killings.

“The headlines read ‘Dozens killed in Gaza’ and none of them referred to the Israeli brutality and willful killing, as if the Palestinians died of some sort of natural disaster or epidemic,” he said, referring to a tweet by New York Times, which was condemned widely.

Kalin said: “Just imagine how the world would have reacted if the 62 people killed on May 14 were Israelis rather than Palestinians."

“It would not have been a news story but a bombshell. It would have changed the parameters of regional and international politics. Western governments would have done everything in their capacity to punish those responsible. Even armies would have been mobilized.

“But none of that happened because the victims were Palestinian."