Edna Duncan | December 11, 2017
While Muslims performed the prayer in front of the White House, Rabbi Weiss and his companions held banners that read: “Torah true Jews in Jerusalem and Worldwide condemn the aggression in Al-Aqsa and the occupation of Palestine” and “Judaism rejects Zionism and the state of Israel”.
For decades, Washington, like most of the rest of the worldwide community, held back from recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, arguing that its status should be determined as part of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
“Today we gathered here to protest Trump’s decision, declaring Jerusalem to be capital of Israel”, Naem Baig, Director of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) interfaith programs said.
But this was a rare rebuke for an action the United States took that in the eyes of the rest of the council and most of the world clearly violates UN resolutions and decisions that Jerusalem is an issue to be resolved by Israel and the Palestinians in peace negotiations on a two-state solution.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital. He said the move would put back the peace process by decades and threatened regional stability and perhaps global stability.
In a joint statement after the meeting, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Italy said the U.S. decision, which includes plans to move the USA embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, was “unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region”. Israel says it won’t relinquish any part of the city, while the Palestinians want the Israeli-annexed eastern sector as their future capital.
Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Trump’s undertaking was a “death sentence for all who seek peace” and called it “a unsafe escalation”.
A few hundred protesters gathered outside the United States consulate in Istanbul, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said.
“People let this happen”, Lawrence-Israels reportedly said. But she testified to Trump’s endurance.
But Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour who spoke after council members said the Trump administration’s decision on recognition “undermines and essentially disqualifies its leadership role to seek peace in the region”.
“The status of Jerusalem must be determined by Israelis and Palestinians in the framework of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations”, Macron told reporters in Algiers. “We must avoid at all costs avoid violence and foster dialogue”, he said.
Article Courtesy: Stock News Press
