Palestine slams Israeli call to destroy Jerusalem walls

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Sunday decried Israeli calls for demolishing sections of walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.

In a statement, the ministry described the calls as “an escalation in the war of Judaization against the city and its surroundings”.

According to the ministry, Aryeh King, a member of the Israeli Jerusalem municipality's council, called on social media to "destroy sections of Jerusalem walls".

The ministry called on the Arab and Islamic worlds to "deal seriously with the calls to demolish the walls of Jerusalem."

There was no comment from Israeli authorities on the statement.

Palestinians have long accused Israel of waging a campaign to “Judaize” East Jerusalem with the aim of effacing its historical Arab and Islamic identity and ultimately driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.

Israel occupied the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state -- a move never recognized by the international community.

International law continues to view the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity on the land as illegal.