RAMALLAH: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al Malki said yesterday he had asked world powers to classify Israeli settler groups who attack Palestinian communities and holy sites as terrorist organisations.
The move comes as part of a Palestinian drive to refer their demands for an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory to more international bodies since US-backed peace talks collapsed last month.
Malki said militant settlers known as the “Hilltop Youth” and vigilantes who use the “price tag” slogan “practice terror ... constantly against the Palestinian people, their land, holy places and property.”
“Price tag” refers to retribution the settlers say they will exact for any attempt by the Israeli government to curb settlement in the West Bank, an area Palestinians seek as part of a future state.
“These groups play a role in killing, incitement to violence and spreading the culture of hatred and racism,” he said in the letter sent to Russia, the US, Canada, the EU, the UN, the Arab League and the OIS.
REUTERS
