PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday denounced the incoming Israeli government as an “existential threat to the Palestinian people.”

“The State of Palestine rejects the annexationist, violent, racist, and incitement to ethnic cleansing policy guidelines of Israel’s new government,” the Palestine MFA said in a statement. “Israel’s coalition of avowed racists and rejectionists are openly an unapologetically adopting an agenda of colonial expansion, racial discrimination, and apartheid and demonstrating their complete disdain towards the international community, international law, United Nations resolutions, and the international consensus for peace.”

The statement further called on the international community to reject dealing with the new government.

Other Arab countries also issued statements about the new government, hailed by both its supporters and its detractors as the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

The foreign ministry of Qatar on Friday condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated plan to build settlements throughout Israel, including the West Bank. Qatar also denounced what they described as plans to “Judaize Al Quds and Al Aqsa mosque,” referring to Jerusalem and the mosque that sits atop the Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites in Islam.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II speaking to CNN on Wednesday before the new government took office warned of Jordanian red lines around the Jerusalem holy sites. Asked whether the religious status quo was under threat, Abdullah said while there are “people who will try and push that,” he said that those people are under “not just a Jordanian microscope, they’re under an international microscope,” without naming any specific individuals.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right MK who was sworn in as National Security Minister on Thursday, told Israeli media that he will “obviously” continue to visit the Temple Mount as a minister. Under the status quo, Jewish prayer is banned on the Temple Mount. Ben-Gvir has described that practice as “racist,” but Netanyahu has said the status quo will not change under his government.

Follow Algemeiner Washington Correspondent Andrew Bernard on Twitter @AndrewJBernie