ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday stressed upon the Muslim Ummah to make it unequivocally clear that any attempt to forcibly relocate the Palestinian people, whether from Gaza or the West Bank, was ethnic cleansing and a war crime under international law. “The OIC must categorically reject any proposal that seeks to eject the Palestinians from their own homeland. No external force has the right to dictate their future to the Palestinians. They must determine their own future, through an exercise of self-determination. The OIC must stand united against any sinister agenda aimed at altering the demography of the occupied Palestinian territories,” the DPM/FM said in a statement at the Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The DPM/FM, in his statement, presented Pakistan’s urgent recommendations including a full and immediate implementation of the three phases of the ceasefire agreement which included a permanent cessation of hostilities, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, unrestricted humanitarian access, and a comprehensive reconstruction plan.

Pakistan fully supported call for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2735 (2024), he added

He said Israeli aggression in the West Bank must end. The destruction of refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur al-Shams, and El Far’a mirrored the devastation in Gaza.

Forced displacements, illegal land annexations and settler violence must be reversed in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions 2720 (2024) and 2334 (2016). The legal and historical status of Al-Haram Al-Sharif/Al-Aqsa Mosque must be upheld, he emphasized.

The Palestinians, Dar said, must receive expanded and unhindered humanitarian assistance. UNRWA must be allowed to operate without obstruction. Israel had a legal duty under Article 2 (5) of the UN Charter to facilitate its work.

The UN General Assembly’s Resolution A/RES/79/232 (2024) reinforced this obligation and condemned all attempts to hinder humanitarian aid, he said, adding the deliberate targeting of aid agencies was a moral outrage and a violation of international law. Humanitarian relief must never be weaponized.

He said the forced displacement of Palestinians must be recognized as a red line.

“The OIC must collectively oppose and block any attempt to relocate Palestinians from their homeland, whether through direct coercion or under the guise of humanitarian relief and reconstruction. Any such move constitutes ethnic cleansing and a grave violation of international law,” Foreign Office Spokesperson, in a press release, quoted him as saying.

The DPM/FM further said that they must ensure the revival of a credible and irreversible political process toward a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.—APP