The League of Arab States has called for a global boycott on the international tourism conference to be hosted by Israel from October 20-22.

Turkey, Spain and Britain have already announced plans to avoid the event, according to a report in eTurboNews.

Mohamed Sobeih, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted as having said that the Arab League was deeply concerned about the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's scheduled ‘high-level' tourism roundtable' and urged all countries to boycott the conference as the fate of Jerusalem still depended on a fair settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Israel's tourism minister had previously stated that participation in the conference would "recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital".

The international community does not acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, although, in 1950, the country declared it to be so in violation of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.

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