Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, Rofi Munawar, strongly condemned Israel for killing more than 55 Palestinians on the Israeli border, which happened to coincide with the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

“Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinian protesters brutally and blindly. It shows that Israel has committed ‘genocide’ and premeditated murder,” Munawar said in a statement as quoted by Parlementaria on 15 May 2018.

He added that US must be responsible for this. They are dancing on the death of Palestinians demanding the right to return to their land. According to Munawar, US has contributed in the darkest history of the Middle East peace process.

In the protest, as quoted by The Guardian, at least 55 Palestinian were killed and 2.400 others injured by Israeli forces in the deadliest day since 2014 Gaza war.

“For the last six weeks Palestinians have launched a protest as part of the ‘nakba day’ protest, but the death toll increased significantly at the same time with the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. It is really tragic and ironic. The UN must not be silent, do something immediately!” Rofi said furiously.

A lawmaker from East Java constituency said that the majority of the victims were unarmed protesters. Palestinian authority in fact accused Israel of having committed a “horrible genocide” and called on international intervention to stop the killings.

“Indonesian government has to lodge a strong protest and take an active role to push tough action against Israel for having committed a systematically and massive massacre,” Munawar said.

More than 1.200 Palestinians were shot and wounded during the Monday protest. According to Palestinian Health Ministry, of the victims were children under 18 years of age. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old boy Ezzaldeen Al-Sammak.

Around 100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the protesters started a six-week protest demanding “The Right to Return”, a right for the Palestinians to return to their homeland where Israel is now occupying. (hs/sc-mut)