The Arab League condemned the Israeli authorities’ inauguration of the so-called “Pilgrim Road”, which runs from the town of Silwan in the occupied city of Jerusalem towards the al-Aqsa Mosque. The opening ceremony was held on Sunday in the presence of senior US diplomats. “The participation of the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, at the inauguration of the tunnel proves the American administration’s absolute bias and full adoption of these settlement projects in violation of international consensus and legitimacy,” Assistant Secretary General for Palestine and occupied Arab lands, Saeed Abu Ali, said in a statement. Abu Ali warned of the serious consequences that would result from the continued Israeli excavations in Jerusalem. He stressed that these Israeli practices are a flagrant violation of international law and International Humanitarian Law, which consider Jerusalem an occupied city and an exclusive Islamic heritage site according to the laws of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He called for an end to all illegal Israeli excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, which blatantly violate international standards, urging the international community to assume its legal, political and moral responsibilities to stop these discriminatory practices. Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat, the secretary of the PLO’s Executive Committee, called on Arab and Islamic countries to take urgent measures and to use their political and economic weight to mobilize international support against “the criminal settlement project in Jerusalem… before violence and extremism dominate the whole region.” In a letter to Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit and Organization of Islamic Cooperation Secretary-General, Youssef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen, he explained “the forms and effects of the systematic and continuous Israeli aggression against Palestine, in particular against Jerusalem and its inhabitants, in an attempt to erase its Arab Palestinian Christian and Islamic historical identity and wipe out the Palestinian presence in it.” Erekat expressed strong Palestinian condemnation of this “blatant violation of international legitimacy, which is a war crime, according to the international law.” He also denounced “the provocative behavior of the Israeli government, in coordination with [US President Donald] Trump’s administration, to strengthen Israeli sovereignty over the holy city.”