Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh today decried Kosovo and Czech’s decision to open embassies to Israel in Jerusalem.
Speaking in the weekly session of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah, Shtayyeh condemned Kosovo official opening of an embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, effectively recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel against international law and consensus.
He also condemned the Czech Republic’s opening of a branch of its Israel embassy, located in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem.
He affirmed that Pristina and Prague’s decisions violate European consensus and international law, encroach upon the Palestinian people’s rights in Jerusalem, and constitute a unilateral step that affects the future of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, breaches all signed agreements and prejudices the final-status issues.
He affirmed that such decisions could not infringe upon the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights to Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian territories that have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
Palestinians claim occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state as part of a two-state solution, and most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, while Israel wants the whole city, including the eastern half it has occupied since 1967, exclusively as its own.