US no longer an ‘honest broker’ in affairs of the Middle East
▶ Trump’s Jerusalem decision centre stage at peace forum in Abu Dhabi
Donald Trump’s decision to move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem dominated the opening day of a peace forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
The Peace Forum for Muslim Societies heard concerns that the decision will have a lasting, negative effect on the peace process.
“[The prospect of] Jerusalem as a capital for the Israeli occupation was rejected by the whole world,” said Dr Abbas Shouman, deputy of Al Azhar, the centre of learning and Islamic authority. “And such actions do not call for peace.”
Dr Lukman Saifuddin, the Indonesian minister of religious affairs, said “Trump has provoked the world with this step, which will draw a setback on international security”.
“We religious scholars and elders now have an additional responsibility, we have to be firefighters in the Islamic community, to try and put down conflict, and to respond to the attacks on Islam and Muslims,” he said.”
Dr Hisham Hellyer, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said he did not agree that the embassy would “spur on other terrorist acts”.
“Because I don’t think that terrorists are waiting for Trump to announce … it certainly strengthens their narrative, but I don’t think they are waiting for that,” he said.
He said the news puts an end to the false hope that the peace process was doing anything to serve the Palestinians, and any suggestion that the United States was an honest broker.
The forum also heard from pastor Bob Roberts, an American Christian evangelical leader, who was in Bethlehem when protesters clashed with Israel security forces at the weekend.
He said he was appalled by the embassy move, and that Muslims and Palestinian Christians alike will suffer.
“My heart is very heavy. I come straight from Bethlehem, I was there with a small evangelical group when the announcement was made.
“My wife and I were tear gassed and as we were running to our rooms; one lady was weeping and said: ‘God, I pray for the Palestinian people that there will be justice and mercy’.
“So we must pray for the whole world, not just Muslims and Christians.”
Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, president of the forum, stressed the need for “intellectuals and wise individuals” from all faiths “to bring their efforts together to tackle the problems that this world is facing”.
An example of such, he said, is the American Peace Caravan, which was initiated by the forum last year and brought together a rabbi, a priest and an imam.
They travel together and hold three-day workshops that demonstrate how they co-exist, and enlighten one another about each other’s faiths.
Pastor Roberts, who is a member of the caravan, has taken Muslims to his church in Texas to break what he said was a “wall of fear” between some from those faiths.
In the beginning, he said, some strongly disagreed and some churchgoers were driven away.
“I said we have to bring love,” he told the Abu Dhabi audience.
But today many support the welcoming of Muslims to their church, including many young believers.
“Now it is being filled with young millennials,” he said. “We have to bypass governments, we need to go straight to the people.
“We have hundreds of Muslims coming to our church and we hold big events together.
“I will tell you this, Muslims: I love you and I will always be there for you.”
The peace forum, at the St Regis on the Corniche, continues today.