Arab League committee calls for action against Israeli measures in Jerusalem

The Arab League’s Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem has called for stronger joint action against Israeli measures to change the historical and legal status quo in the occupied city of Jerusalem, Anadolu has reported. The committee made its call after its fifth meeting in Cairo on Tuesday on the fringe of the 158th regular session of the League’s foreign ministers.

“Support is called for to back the resilience of the Jerusalemites and protect them from the constant danger caused by the building and expansion of settlements, the demolition of homes, the confiscation of land and the displacement of the Palestinians,” said the committee. “We reaffirm the importance of continued joint action to confront the illegal Israeli policies, which represent a flagrant violation of international law, and are incompatible with the right of the Palestinian people to live freely and safely within an independent, sovereign, geographically connected and viable state.”

East Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state, the committee members added. They rejected any attempt to undermine the right of Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied city and any unilateral measures that affect its legal status. The principle of a “just and comprehensive peace” based on an end to the Israeli occupation is essential, they insisted.

“It is a necessity to realise the embodiment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with occupied Jerusalem as its capital based on the lines of 4 June, 1967 and the two-state solution in accordance with international law, the Arab Peace Initiative, and the principle of land-for-peace.”

The committee also confirmed the importance of the role of the guardianship of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan over the Arab, Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, to protect these sacred sites and preserve their identity and their historical and legal status quo.

During the committee meeting, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki briefed members about the developments in occupied Palestine, especially the Israeli violations in Jerusalem. “Israel aims to change the legal and historical status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” he stressed, “dividing it temporally and spatially, imposing Israeli sovereignty over it and allowing extremist settlers to storm it and publicly recite their prayers and Talmudic rituals that seek to Judaise it.”

The meeting was chaired by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, with members from Tunisia as the chair of the last Arab summit in 2019, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Qatar, Egypt and Morocco. The UAE was represented in its capacity as the Arab member of the UN Security Council. The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, was also in attendance.

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