Jerusalem committee calls for halting normalization with Israel
Regional-Palestine, Politics, 7/31/1998

The Jerusalem (Al-Quds) Committee called Thursday on the Islamic countries to stop normalizing relations with Israel until it abides by international legality.

The committee urged, in a final communique released at the end of its two-day 17th session in Casablanca, "those Islamic countries which have taken steps to normalize relations with Israel in the context of the peace process to reconsider such relations with Israel."

The Committee called on these countries "to close their missions and offices until Israel complies with U.N. resolutions and carries out the agreements, pledges and commitments reached by the parties to the peace process."

Morocco, Tunisia and Qatar have liaison offices in Israel and host such Israeli representations, while Egypt and Jordan have diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv at the ambassadorial level.

The Islamic body also urged all countries of the world to recognize the Palestinian state, when it is proclaimed in the Palestinian territories in accordance with international legality.

President Arafat pledged recently to proclaim an independent Palestinian state in May 1999, when the final status negotiations were initially supposed to end.

The Jerusalem Committee called for the implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions on the preservation of the holy city.

The Israeli practices in Jerusalem violate the foundations of peace and jeopardize world peace and security, the committee said.

The 16-member body, chaired by King Hassan II, requested the USA and Russia, co-sponsors of the Middle-East peace process, the other permanent Security Council members, the European Union and the Non-Aligned Movement countries to prevent the Judaization of the holy city and oppose its isolation from the rest of Palestine.

The Committee urged all countries to abide by Security Council resolution 478 not to transfer the diplomatic representations in Israel to Jerusalem and to reject the recommendation of the U.S. congress considering Jerusalem as Israel's capital and requesting the transfer of the U.S embassy to the holy city.

The Jerusalem committee also called on the Vatican to refuse to extend recognition to Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

It further called on the Eastern and other churches and Christian religious orders to contribute to efforts aimed at resisting the Judaization of the city of Jerusalem so as to respect all celestial religious shrines and to preserve peaceful coexistence amongst themselves.

The USA and other donors were called to stop extending assistance that Israel uses in financing its settlement plans in the Arab territories in Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights.

The committee praised the position of the European Union, refusing to consider Jerusalem and the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as Israeli land.

It also called on the Islamic countries to intensify their backing of the Palestinian people to help protect Islamic and Christian holy sites and preserve the civilizational heritage of Jerusalem.

The committee's member countries, aid donors, banks, Islamic funds, companies and individuals were called to extend more assistance to support the "Bait Al-Mal" of Jerusalem (Jerusalem Fund) and to organize fund-raising operations to the benefit of the holy city and its inhabitants.

The creation of the Jerusalem Fund was recommended during the Jerusalem Committee's 16th session, held in March 1997, with the aim of financing operations related to the preservation of the holy city.

The Jerusalem Committee, an off-shoot of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), seeks to "devise a global plan for the liberation" of the holy city and the preservation of the Arab and Islamic cultural and religious heritage of the city.

The Committee, which was set up in 1975, gathers Morocco, as chairman, Palestine, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Senegal, Guinea, Niger and Mauritania.

Previous Stories:
  Financial backing needed to brake settlements, ministers hold side talks   (7/30/1998)
  Session on Israeli Judaization policy in Jerusalem begins   (7/30/1998)
  US Jewish organization exposes East Jerusalem settler funding   (7/22/1998)

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