Qurei, who is a member of the PLO Executive Committee, slammed the Tel Aviv regime’s policies which are aimed at violating and destroying ancient and historical sites in the city.

He also said that Israel is trying to Judaize al-Quds.

Qurei called on Arabs and the international community to protect the city’s mosques, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, against Tel Aviv regime’s excavation plans.

Over the past decades, Israeli has tried to change demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

The Tel Aviv regime has increased its illegal settlement expansion following an upgrade of Palestine’s status at the UN to a non-member observer state on November 29, 2012.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. The international community considers the settlements illegal.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

On July 19, the European Union published new guidelines banning its 28 members from funding projects in Israeli settlements in al-Quds, the West Bank or Golan Heights, which the Tel Aviv regime occupied during the 1967 war.

The Guidelines are part of the 2014-20 financial frameworks which incorporate all sectors of cooperation between the EU and Israel, including economics, science, culture, sports and academia.