Palestine FM: Settler crimes wouldn't continue without West's silence

Mohammed Abu al-Halawa, a survivor who was left a paraplegic after the massacre of 29 Muslims by a Jewish extremist twenty years ago, poses with a picture of him wounded on 25 February 2014 in the West Bank city of Hebron [Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images]

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates yesterday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to expedite the opening of an investigation into the crimes of “the Israeli occupation and its settlers” against the Palestinian people.

The ministry issued its call on the 27th anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre when extremist Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein attacked Palestinian worshippers at the Islamic holy site, killing 29 people and injuring 150 others.

“Despite the passage of 27 years since this heinous crime, the Israeli judaisation of the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surroundings continues and takes different forms and extends to all areas of the occupied West Bank, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the anniversary comes as Israeli and settler terrorism against Palestinians, their properties and land is on the rise.

The ministry condemned in “the strongest terms” the continuing Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people, stressing that Israeli extremism, hatred, violence and crimes would not have continued or escalated without “the international community’s suspicious silence”.

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