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News > World

Islamic Summit to Back Jerusalem as Palestine Capital

  • Turkey has assertively backed the Palestinians on this issue, blasting what it called a feeble Arab reaction to the U.S. decision.

    Turkey has assertively backed the Palestinians on this issue, blasting what it called a feeble Arab reaction to the U.S. decision. | Photo: Reuters/Wikimedia Commons

Published 12 December 2017
Opinion

The leaders of 15 Muslim countries will attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul, challenging US-Saudi-Israeli hegemony.

The Muslim world is closely watching an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, due to be held in Istanbul Wednesday, in the hopes that its 57 member states can reach a common resolution in addressing the U.S. recognition of Israel's unilateral claims to the illegally-occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem its capital.

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Revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, the Palestinian and Arab city of Al-Quds or Jerusalem is home to Islam's third holiest site. The illegal occupation of the city has for decades been a source of resentment for the Arab world and especially the dispossessed people of Palestine. 

Turkey has assertively backed the Palestinians on this issue, blasting what it called a feeble Arab reaction to the U.S. decision. On the eve of the summit, the country noted that some Arab countries were scared of angering Washington.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has accused the United States of "trampling on international law" and supporting Tel Aviv's “terrorism,” has invited leaders from across the Muslim world to agree on a response at the OIC conference.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was invited due to his status as the president of the Non-Aligned Movement, will also attend as an observer.

U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement last week recognizing the city as the occupation authority's seat of power – which actually lies in Tel Aviv – angered many Muslim countries, but few governments have matched Turkey's fury over the decision.

"Declaring Jerusalem a capital is disregarding history and the truths in the region, it is a big injustice/cruelty, shortsightedness, foolishness/madness, it is plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Twitter last Wednesday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) | Photo: Reuters

Jerusalem´s governor and Palestinian Authority official Adnan al-Husayni has urged the OIC to declare Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine in response to Trump's action.

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“He (Trump) wanted to show he is helpful to the Zionists and the Israelis. But it is within our capacity to speak about the future of Jerusalem, not Trump,” al-Husayni told Turkey's Hurriyet news daily on Saturday, vowing that the Palestinian intifada (uprising) would continue until positive steps are taken.

Al-Husainy stressed that Tel Aviv and Trump must retract their decisions and the OIC summit “will not only be a beacon of hope for the Palestinians, but also to all Muslims and the world community,” according to New Straits Times.

Several countries had still not said who they would send to Istanbul, a Turkish minister said.

According to Turkish media, the heads of state of “Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Palestine, Guinea, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Somalia, Togo, Jordan, and Yemen” are due to attend.

"Some Arab countries have shown very weak responses (on Jerusalem)," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. "It seems some countries are very timid of the United States."

“If we don’t defend Jerusalem today, when will we defend it?” he asked. “If we don’t defend Jerusalem, one of the three most sacred places of Islam, what will we defend?” 

He said Saudi Arabia had failed yet to note how it would participate, while its junior partners Egypt and the United Arab Emirates would send foreign ministers. All three countries have delicate ties with Turkey, seeing links between the policies of Erdogan's Islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development Party and regional Islamist movements they oppose, such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudi-led countries are also backing the blockade of Qatar – a close ally of Turkey – while working alongside the Trump administration to normalize Gulf Arab ties with Tel Aviv.

Left to Right: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Donald Trump, Jared Kushner. | Photo: Reuters

Trump's announcement, however, has placed massive pressure on the Saudi kingdom, placing it in the uncomfortable position of justifying its increasingly open alliance with the Israelis as hundreds of thousands of supporters of the Palestinian cause have mobilized in massive public demonstrations across the world. Meanwhile, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces have broken out across the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

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Cavusoglu added that the meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries must stand up to what he called Washington's "I am a super power, I can do anything" mentality.

"We will make a call for countries that have so far not recognized Palestine to do so now," he said. "...We want the United States to turn back from its mistake."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has already embarked for Istanbul, saying his country supports a new intifada (uprising) against Israel to "safeguard the Palestinian people's rights.

"We strongly believe that this decision is the result of interaction between Israel and some Muslim countries," he told Erdogan in a telephone call on Tuesday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Rouhani said Muslim countries would "undoubtedly voice their protest to the world" at Wednesday's meeting.

Iranian Defence Minister Amir Hatami has also said Trump's decision would strengthen Israel, and accused some Muslim states of cooperating covertly with the Israeli government. Qassem Soleimani, head of the branch of the Revolutionary Guards that oversees operations outside Iran – the Quds Force, named after the Arab name for Jerusalem – pledged "complete support for Palestinian Islamic resistance movements" on Monday.

“Iran and Turkey have both long wished for an end to Saudi Arabia calling the shots in the Muslim Middle East. Now that the issue of Jerusalem has come to the fore, the Saudi regime must be wary of being seen to coordinate with Israel, or dancing to Trump’s tune,” wrote Asia Times journalist and former Indian ambassador to Turkey, M.K. Bhadrakumar.

“The Arab states have tended to pay mere lip service to the Palestine issue. Now, for the first time, the baton of leadership is passing into non-Arab (Turkish-Iranian) hands, and Palestine is now a Muslim rather than an Arab issue – something Iran has always sought. It is a historic transition that underscores the diminished Saudi clout in regional politics.”

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