Amman Ministerial Meeting: Israeli attacks against Jerusalem provoke sentiments of 2 billion Muslims

AMMAN — Fourteen Arab and Islamic foreign ministers, who met in Amman on Wednesday, warned that Israeli attacks against Islamic holy sites in the occupied Jerusalem constitute a blatant provocation to the sentiments of around two billion Muslims worldwide. “These attacks push towards a religious conflict with repercussions that will extend beyond the region and threaten regional and international peace and security,” they said in a joint statement issued at the end of the Ministerial Meeting in support of Jerusalem and its Holy Sites.Members of the Arab Ministerial Committee tasked with mobilizing international action in response to illegal Israeli policies and actions attended the meeting along with foreign ministers and representatives of Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkiye and Malaysia. The ministerial committee included foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Qatar, Somalia, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan. The ministerial committee called upon the international community and the UN Security Council to act immediately to halt Israel’s all illegitimate measures in occupied Jerusalem and its holy sites, which are intensifying within the context of a systematic Israeli policy to entrench the occupation in the city of Jerusalem and throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. These illegitimate measures include settlement expansion, land annexation, the suffocation of the Palestinian economy, the targeting of Palestinian national institutions, the escalating settler terrorism, and the targeting the UNRWA. The ministers noted the continued Israel’s violations of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, thereby undermining the two-state solution and all prospects for achieving a just and comprehensive peace and fueling tension and conflict in the region. The meeting condemned Israeli policies and measures aimed at altering the Arab Islamic and Christian identity of occupied Jerusalem and its legal and demographic status, and reject such measures as null and void, without legal effect, and as a flagrant violation of international law and Israel’s obligations as the occupying power. The foreign ministers reaffirmed that East Jerusalem is part of the occupied Palestinian territory, and that Israel has no sovereignty over it. They reemphasized that East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine, and that the realization of a free, independent and sovereign Palestinian State on the lines of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living in security and peace alongside Israel, on the basis of the two-state solution and in accordance with international law, is the only path to achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace. They condemned all Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as well as all attempts to alter its historic and legal status quo and impose temporal and spatial division, including the escalating incursions by extremist settlers, Israeli ministers and officials, with the protection of the Israeli occupation authorities. They affirmed that Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is a place of worship exclusively for Muslims.They also supported the historic Hashemite Custodianship over the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, and its role in protecting these holy sites, safeguarding their Arab Islamic and Christian identity, and preserving the historic and legal status quo.They rejected any unilateral decision that violates the legal status of the occupied city of Jerusalem, including the establishment or relocation of diplomatic missions to the city; affirm that such decisions violate international law and relevant United Nations resolutions; and called upon the states concerned to reverse them. The meeting decided to launch joint action to mobilize an effective international response to halt these escalatory and illegitimate Israeli practices, measures and policies, and to compel Israel to respect the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites.They agreed to launch a sustainable, institutional and operational mechanism, including a media platform, to document and expose Israeli violations against the holy sites and worshipers, and to expose their catastrophic repercussions.The meeting called for the convening of a joint ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League during the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, to discuss the dangerous Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and its holy sites and ways to confront it.