‘Racist’ Zionist practices flayed as unrest persists

CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby on Thursday condemned what he branded Israel’s “racist and aggressive” practices toward the Palestinians and urged the UN and international community to intervene.

Elaraby’s statement came as clashes between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem trigger fears of a broader uprising, even a third intifada.
“The international community and the UN must take up their responsibilities in countering the aggressive and racist Israeli practices toward the Palestinian people,” Elaraby said.
“The continuing escalation of attacks on the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers threaten to exacerbate the situation in the entire region as the international community remains silent to these crimes.”
In a spate of confrontations over the past week, at least seven Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed since Oct. 2.
Elaraby said the “arbitrary arrests of Palestinians, burning of their homes and preventing them from performing religious rituals constitute flagrant violation” of UN human rights resolutions.
Arab Israeli lawmakers have vowed to defy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to bar MPs from entering Al-Aqsa compound, pledging to visit it on Friday.
“Neither Netanyahu nor the right will be able to stop us from entering our Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Israeli Arab MP Ahmed Tibi said on Thursday, calling the ban “senseless and illegal.” Thirteen of Israel’s 120 MPs are Arabs.
Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian in east Jerusalem Thursday on their way to the home of a man accused of an earlier stabbing attack, medics said.
The Palestinian killed was shot in the chest at the Shuafat refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem, according to the Red Crescent and hospital sources.
The first attack on Thursday saw a Palestinian stab a 25-year-old Jewish man in Jerusalem, leaving him in serious condition. The 19-year-old attacker was arrested.
Later in the day, an Israeli soldier and three passers-by were stabbed in Tel Aviv and the attacker was killed.
The suspect stabbed the victims, who were lightly wounded, with a screwdriver before another soldier in the area shot him dead, police said.