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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday warned against “provocations” as clashes broke out at Jerusalem’s holy sites, before condemning Israel for its settlement activity and calling for talks with the Palestinians.
Ban was speaking at Jerusalem and Ramallah,where he met with Israeli and Palestinianleaders a day after the donor conference for Gaza was held in Egypt, where international donors pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild the Gaza Strip.
Only a few hours before Ban spoke, the after Israeli police and Palestinians clashed at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
“I am also deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem. These only inflame tensions and must stop”, Ban said at a joint press conference withPalestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah.
Palestinian protesters have been demonstrating against orthodox Jews entering the compound; the police have arrested four protesters so far.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid the blame on the Palestinians for the clashes.
“Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo exactly as it’s been for many decades. What we’re seeing is Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement”, he said at his Jerusalem office in Ban’s presence.
Ban also said that the amount raised in Cairo was “encouraging” and that the funds will go towards the “urgently needed” reconstruction of homes and infrastructure.
“(But)while rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability”, he reiterated.
At the conference, Ban said, “the root causes of the recent hostilities (are)a restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations”.
Netanyahu has, however, maintained that the occupation is not relevant to the conflict in Gaza.
“The root cause of the violence that burst from Gaza is not Israel’s occupation in Gaza, for a simple reason: Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza.The root cause of this summer’s outburst of violence was Hamas’s rocketing of Israeli cities”, he told Ban.
Ban also called out Netanyahu on Israel’s unilateral settlement construction announcements, and said that they were “in clear violation of international law” and do “not send the right signals”.
“I urge the government of Israel to reverse these activities”, Ban said.
