Ankara UN conference supports King’s pro-Jerusalem drive

AMMAN — Participants in the UN International Meeting on the Question of Jerusalem, held in Ankara during the period May 12-13, concluded with some recommendations, supporting His Majesty King Abdullah’s custodianship of the holy sites in occupied Jerusalem. 

The participants rejected Israel’s adoption and implementation of the plans of Jewish extremists to “sever  Al Aqsa Mosque from its historical and geographical roots”.

“The participants support His Majesty King Abdullah, the custodian of the holy sites, and His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the State of Palestine, which has sovereignty over the holy sites, to take all available legal measures to defend the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque and to intervene with a view to putting an end to Israeli violations, in accordance with the rules of international law and international resolutions concerning Jerusalem,” the conference’s final communiqué said.

The participants welcomed a call by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the Turkish people “to support their Palestinian brothers and other Muslims in defending the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque”. 

The Turkish people should protect the mosque’s Islamic identity by visiting it and praying there, “just as they visit the sacred Kaaba and the blessed Mosque of the Prophet Mohammad”.

Al Haram Al Sharif (or noble sanctuary) is Islam’s third holiest place. A fatwa by a conference in Amman last month sanctioned visiting Al Aqsa, even when it is under occupation.

The fatwa was supported completely by the Ankara meeting.

“The participants endorse the consensus arrived at by the scholars and jurists who participated in the Road to Jerusalem Conference, which was held in Amman in late April 2014, to call on all Palestinians, regardless of their nationalities, and Muslims around the world to affirm their right to defend their sacred Islamic and Christian sites and to do so by paying a religious visit to the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque and praying there and by maintaining contact and support of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people”.

The call was also adopted by Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Iyad Madani, who said all Muslims and Christians should try to reach Jerusalem “by any means possible”, according to the statement, “in order to express their right to freedom of worship and to preserve their sacred sites and support the people of Jerusalem and help them to develop their community”.

They also expressed their support for the Palestinian people’s struggle and insistence that Jerusalem should be the capital of their future state.

Madani, supported by the participants, also called on the secretary general of the United Nations to search for “innovative and effective ways of confronting Israel’s flagrant violations of international law and ending the racist system of government”.

Participants urged the international community, academic and media institutions, schools and universities to reject the Israeli “Judaisation narrative” of Jerusalem and Palestine, and to “hold fast to the Muslim and Christian narrative concerning Jerusalem”. 

In another recommendation, the conference adopted Davutoglu’s suggestion to convene a special meeting on the status of Jerusalem and the right of refugees to return to their homes under the rubric of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine.

Echoing Amman conference’s outcomes, the participants in Ankara meeting called on the US to end its support and withdraw the cover it provides for Israel.