Jerusalem Fund tutorship committee calls for raising funds for holy city
Regional, Politics, 3/11/1999

The tutorship committee of the Bait Mal Al-Quds (Jerusalem Fund) wound up Wednesday its first meeting in Rabat with calls on Islamic countries to organize fundraising campaigns to safeguard the holy city against Judaization attempts

The meeting unanimously elected Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Abdellatif Filali president of the tutorship committee that gathers the foreign ministers of Morocco, Palestine, Senegal, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Director-general of the Bait Mal Al-Quds, Wajih Ali Kacem (Abu Marwane), said the agency's funds, which do not exceed $2 million presently, do not allow for the beginning of the projects decided for the holy city, especially in the priority fields of housing, health and education.

Abu Marwane, who is also Palestinian ambassador to Morocco, said the agency had decided, upon a proposal of the Palestinian housing council, to build low-cost lodgings for the Palestinians living in Jerusalem where 25% of lodgings are unhealthy. He specified that some 1,000 houses are exposed to collapse and that 21,000 households live in indecent housing.

The official called for extending aid and loans to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to help them rehabilitate their lodgings. Such an operation requires a budget of $5 million, he said.

In a message to the meeting, Palestinian president Yasser Arafat deplored the fact that the Arab nation -- with all its material, moral, economic, political and human means-- is unable to provide the holy city with the appropriate means of resistance, while a single Jewish billionaire earmarked $40 million to finance the Ras Al-Amoud settlement.

Arafat proposed to issue a special post stamp for Al-Quds, raise funds during Muslim religious days and air special television programs throughout the Arab and Islamic world to increase the financial means necessary for the protection of the holy city.

The Palestinian president added that Israel allocates a huge budget to the Judaization of the city, spurring settlements and seriously modifying the demographic characteristics of Jerusalem.

In order to achieve its objectives, Israel resorts to terrorism, repression, ethnic cleansing, murders, arrests, lodgings destruction, economic and tax pressure, land confiscation and other deplorable acts, he said.

The Bait Mal Al-Quds, headquartered in the Moroccan economic and financial metropolis, Casablanca, was created by the 15th session of Al-Quds Committee in January 1995 in Ifrane (central Morocco). It seeks to raise funds to save the occupied city of Al-Quds, defend the Palestinians' rights over the city, back their resistance and safeguard the city's civilizational, religious, cultural and architectural heritage.

The management and control of the funds activities is ensured by a trusteeship committee that was formed during the Al-Quds committee's 17th session held last August in Morocco.

The trusteeship committee is made up of Morocco and the state of Palestine as permanent members, and Saudi Arabia (for the Arab World), Iran (for Asia) and Senegal (for Africa). These three members will sit in the trusteeship committee for three years and will be replaced by new members.

The governing board includes the finance ministers of the Al-Quds committee member countries and the OIC secretary-general.

Previous Stories:
  Jerusalem fund opens constituent assembly today in Rabat   (3/10/1999)
  Farouk Qaddoumi in Morocco to attend Jerusalem Fund constituent assembly   (3/9/1999)
  Participants in colloquy on Jerusalem back Palestinian statehood   (2/26/1999)

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