Abbas Adviser Calls Moving Israeli Capital to Jerusalem 'Legal Apartheid'

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The proclamation of Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel as well as foreign states moving embassies to the city constitute "legal apartheid," the Palestinian presidential adviser said on Thursday.

"Israel declared Jerusalem a united and infrangible capital… and that all its territory belongs to Israel and no other people could decide the destiny of Israeli people. It was a factual and legal apartheid, de facto apartheid. All actions aimed at making Jerusalem a united infrangible capital of Israel… any move of embassy by any state to Jerusalem is a breach of the UNSC decision," Palestinian presidential adviser Nabil Shaath said at a round table discussion on the status of Jerusalem at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency's Press Center.

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The statement comes after earlier this week, the prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia announced that their governments will open offices with diplomatic status in Jerusalem, thus joining the Czech Republic and Bulgaria that had already opened some kind of representative offices in Jerusalem.

In May, the United States relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem prompting the outrage of the Muslim world. Brazil, the Czech Republic, Guatemala and Honduras have also recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

Meanwhile, the United Nations urges the organization's member states to refrain from moving diplomatic missions to Jerusalem until the city’s legal status is settled.

Shaath also accused the United States and other democratic countries supporting Israel of double standards regarding attitude to "apartheid" regime.

"Europe, the United States, which consider themselves democrats, by supporting Israel they de facto admit that they support an apartheid state. While fighting fascists in their own counties, they de facto accept Israel's fascist law," Shaath said.

Apartheid is a system of racial segregation and discrimination used by South African authorities against the black population between 1948 and 1991. This term is currently used in case of similar policies in other countries. In 1973, the United Nations adopted the Apartheid Convention, which qualifies apartheid as a crime against humanity, however, dozens of states have not ratified the document.

Israel seized then Jordan-controlled East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1980, the Israeli parliament adopted the Jerusalem Law proclaiming the entire city Israel’s undivided capital. The international community does not recognize the annexation and believes the status of Jerusalem should be agreed with the Palestinians, who claim its eastern part as the capital of their future state.