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Jerusalem Decison is "dangerous" for Middle East
12-13-2017
Thousands of protesters around the world took to the street over President Donald Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, to West Jerusalem, recognizing West Jerusalem as Israel capital. However, truth is far from reality. While thousands may have taken to the streets, lashing out at Mr. Trump's unthoughtful decision. Millions of people around the world, especially among Muslim nations had no clue what were these protests all about. This is due to unbalanced coverage by the media, and lack of courage on the part of Muslim leaders for denouncing such move which will with certainty spark off a new wave of violence, confrontation, and international diplomatic chaos.
While Mr. Trump plunges the world into west vs east confrontation. The mainstream media struggles to censor the outrage being expressed by citizens in western countries. Thousands of people around the world, including western nations, took to the street over Mr. Trump's decision. Despite this, mainstream media failed to project public sentiment to the masses by turning the blind eye to protestors.
The President statement issued by the White House, states, "My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians." History will be the best judge of that. However, what the world is witnessing thus far certainly can be deemed as a "New approach" to infuriating conflict.
The U.S. is "plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight," Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said through a spokesperson.
French President Emmanuel Macron was the first EU leader to call out Trump's action, via Twitter, stating, "France does not approve the US decision. France supports the Two-State , Solution, Israel and Palestine, living in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States."
U.K Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement, "We disagree with the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement." She added, "We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it."
"The German government does not support this position, because the status of Jerusalem is to be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution," German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying by a spokesman.
The importance and the how sensitive this one square kilometer of land, Jerusalem, is on the world map, cannot be undermined and should not be left on the whims of an American President. The Dome of the Rock along with Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Makkah and Madinah. The Jordanian organization, The Waqf, is the custodian of these two holy sites. Lies in the shadow of Al-Quds, the Western Wall, a pilgrimage site for the Jews around the world. Nearby the Church of Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe, Jesus was crucified. Six Christian denominations share this church. The keys to the church held by a Muslim family, to avoid fighting between the Christian factions.
For centuries, three major religions of the world, Christian, Muslims, and Jews have been worshipping side-by-side. In 1947, when United Nations drew up its partition plan, forming Israel and Palestine, it declared Jerusalem as an International City, belonging to no one and everyone. For years the international community has denounced the calls for declaring West Jerusalem to be an Israeli Capital, and East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital.
The unthoughtful decision by Mr. Trump, which each president, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, for the past twenty years, since 1995, have refused to sign the waiver, when the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill to recognize Jerusalem as an Israeli capital, has a potential to set of an international diplomatic chaos.
At an emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Countries, OIC, held in Turkey, on December 13th, the OIC has declared East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, rejected the US stance as "dangerous" and called on the international community to follow in its footsteps.
The joint statement issued by the OIC Leaders states, that they remain committed to a "just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution."
The statement calls the UN to "end the Israeli occupation" of Palestine and declared Trump's administration liable for "all the consequences of not retracting from this illegal decision".
"[We] consider that this dangerous declaration, which aims to change the legal status of the [city], is null and void and lacks any legitimacy," OIC added.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said the summit in Istanbul highlighted that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims continue to be committed to peace.
"Now, Muslim countries in addition to a whole lot of others that are allied with the Palestinian cause will recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine," he said.
"And those Islamic countries are ready to sever relations to punish any one country that follows in the footsteps of the United States in recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."
Yousef al-Othaimeen, the OIC's secretary general, stated, "The OIC rejects and condemns the American decision," he said. "This is a violation of international law ... and this is a provocation of the feelings of Muslims within the world. " he further stated, "It will create a situation of instability in the region and in the world."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US had "disqualified" itself from future Israel-Palestine peace talks after proving its "bias in favour of Israel."
For Mr. Trump this is just another fulfillment of an election promise, which other past presidents have a record as broken promises. For AlAmeen Post readers, Canadian politicians in past, such as Joe Clark of the Conservatives have also made similar promises of moving the Canadian High Commission to Jerusalem, dating as far back as 1979. However, CBC article points out "Prime Minister Joe Clark's government backed down on its controversial 1979 promise to move Canada's Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in part over fears of possible economic fallout, according to secret cabinet documents obtained by CBC News."
Mr. Trump's decision is being denounced by the world leaders, both among the Muslim countries, as well as by leading western and European Union leaders. We urge the Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Justin Trudeau, and his government to take the lead from other sensible world leaders who are still hopeful about the lasting peace in the middle-east rather than the wingnut down south.
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