ARABS TELL ISRAEL TO BACK OFF
After Cairo meeting, leaders say Jerusalem, W. Bank bids stir anger
Arab and Islamic leaders issued sharply worded warnings Sunday that recent moves in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank by Israel like home demolitions could worsen growing turmoil in the region.
The high-level officials who were meeting in Cairo condemned Israel’s “unilateral measures,” which also have included expanding settlements.
They voiced support for Jordan’s role as custodian of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City that Jews call Temple Mount, and criticized visits by Israeli officials to the contested holy site.
King Abdullah II of Jordan called for Israel to cease incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The region cannot live in peace, stability, and prosperity without any progress made on the Palestinian cause,” he warned.
Attempts to partition the mosque and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity “would fuel endless unrest and violence,” said Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, secretary general of the Arab League that hosted the high-level meeting.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. It claims all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Sunday’s meeting in Cairo was attended by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other foreign ministers and officials.
The Egyptian president called Jerusalem “the backbone of the Palestinian cause” and cautioned Israel against any move to change the status of the contested holy site, saying it could “negatively impact” future negotiations to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He asked the international community to help “create conducive conditions for the resumption of the peace process.”
A final statement from the meeting condemned what it called “Israeli’s systemic policy” that aims at “distorting and changing” Jerusalem’s “Arab and Islamic culture and identity.”
The gathering came amid one of the deadliest periods of fighting in years in Jerusalem and nearby Israeli-occupied territory. This year, 45 Palestinians have been killed, according to The Associated Press, while Palestinians have killed 10 people on the Israeli side.
In the days after a Palestinian gunman killed seven people in east Jerusalem last month, the deadliest attack in the city since 2008, Israel called for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes built without permits as part of its punitive actions.
Many Palestinians see the home demolitions as part of an effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government to gain control of east Jerusalem.
Most Palestinian apartments in east Jerusalem were built without permits that are “virtually impossible” to obtain, according to a UN study.
Observers say at least 20,000 Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem are slated for demolition, and protests over the destruction have erupted there in recent days.
Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders and called on them to help ease tensions.