The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) issued a statement calling on the US to act on its promise to be a peacekeeper, after the body held an emergency meeting of foreign ministers to discuss Israel's annexation plans for the occupied West Bank.
The OIC called on President Donald Trump to "fulfil his pledges ... to prevent settlement activity, the annexation of the occupied West Bank and forced displacement", it said. The statement was issued after Israeli moves to legalise land grabs and construct roads, initiatives seen as a step towards annexing the Palestinian territory.
The US has been long viewed as a "broker of peace" between Palestine and Israel. Mr Trump last year created the Board of Peace as part of a phased ceasefire plan introduced in October to end the war in Gaza. The first phase included an end to the fighting, aid delivery and the release of hostages and detainees. But Israel has killed at least 600 Palestinians since the ceasefire was announced.
The US has also repeatedly sided with Israel on contentious issues that have emboldened its breaches of international law, carried out without repercussions. During Mr Trump's first term in office, he moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem – effectively recognising the city as the capital of Israel. This month, the US embassy said it would provide consular services in illegal settlements.
The OIC condemned the "announcement by the United States embassy in occupied Jerusalem regarding the issuance of visas and the provision of other consular services to settlers residing in illegal settlements".
Settler attacks have been a near-daily occurrence since the start of the Gaza war. In the northern Jordan Valley, at least 112 communities were displaced and 4,037 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes because of settler violence in the West Bank, the UN said last month.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem has documented 45 cases in which entire communities were expelled, with at least 3,330 people forcibly displaced by settler and military attacks. “Backed by the state, settlers have established dozens of herding outposts around these communities in recent years,” the group said. The primary goal of the attacks is to drive Palestinians away and seize their land, it added.
The OIC condemned Israel's protection of settlers committing violence and called on the international community to protect Palestinians, disarm settlers and place "these terrorists ... on international terrorism lists, preventing their movement, freezing their accounts and assets".
On Thursday, the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, Maj Gen Avi Bluth, to justify the failure to protect a group of Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley from harassment and violence by settlers, The Times of Israel reported.
