Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 10/05/2010
Istanbul – Republic of Turkey 10 May 2010 Your Excellency, President Abdullah Gul, Your Excellency, Mohamed Ali Shahin, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Your Excellency, Abdulaziz Al Gharir, Speaker of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates, Chairman of the Council of PUIC, Your Excellency, Prof. Mahmud Erol Kilic, Secretary-General of PUIC, Your Excellencies, Speakers and Members of Parliaments, Honorable participants, Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Let me start by expressing how pleased I am to address this august gathering of yours which is meeting to discuss the issue of Palestine and Al Quds Al Shareef, a pivotal issue for the Muslim Ummah. This is a major issue on which the Ummah agrees, the cause of Palestine and Al Quds Al Sharif has always galvanized Muslims’ attention and concern. Your Excellencies, As I address this distinguished gathering the City of Al Quds – the destination of the Prophet’s night journey, the first qibla of Islam and the City of the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque – is going through perilous conditions. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these are worst days in its history. This resilient City faces a looming danger and the prospects of a dark future. The judaization processes - construction of synagogues, expulsion of the Palestinian population of Al Quds, attempt to obliterate the City’s historical and cultural identity, the building of tunnels that threaten the foundations of the Blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, the intensification of settlement activity, and surrounding the city with isolating segregation walls – are ongoing. The Israeli practices in Al Quds are a blatant violation of international law and the international humanitarian law, particularly the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. It is also a contravention of the resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. We are today witnessing growing Israeli infringement of international law, and an unprecedented intensification of its extremism and insolence which has gone out of proportion in fiercely targeting the Arab Islamic identity of the City of Al Quds. Israel has systematically adopted political, demographic and economic measures aimed at altering the authentic identity of the city of Al Quds, judaizing it, falsifying its reality, changing its landmarks, ridding it of its original population, isolating it from its Palestinian geographical environment and introducing it as a purely Jewish city. This has created a set of grave challenges that are facing the population of Al Quds in all walks of life, including education, health, housing, economy, social security, infrastructure and services. We should not lose sight of the fact that the challenges facing Palestinians in Al Quds are also the challenges facing the Ummah, which is like a body where an ailment in a part thereof should affect all the other parts. This should not be mere rhetoric but a principle to be translated into deeds and action. The situation in the city of Al Quds is exceptional and therefore calls for an exceptional stand. No single Muslim is exempted from responsibility in this regard. Every Muslim is under an obligation to help support Al Quds and rescue it from the evils of judaization and Israelization it is facing today. It has become clear that the Israeli position vis-à-vis the cause of Al Quds Al Sharif is completely in harmony with the illusions contained in the Old Testament about the so-called temple. It is also in harmony with the extremist religious disposition to take control of Al Aqsa Mosque and to firmly establish the direct Jewish presence there, either by digging tunnels underneath its foundations, by allowing Jewish extremists or official personalities – individually or in groups – to visit Al Aqsa Mosque and facilitating its storming by extremists, or by banning the appropriate restoration works needed for the Mosque. This includes Israel’s recent blocking of quantities of “ceramics” donated by the Government of Turkey meant for restoration works inside Al Aqsa Mosque. There are also attempts by Israel to interfere directly in the management of Al Aqsa Mosque, controlling access to it, restricting the movement of those who come to it for prayer, and seeking to divide it. At the same time, Israel is taking advantage of the international community’s lassitude with the its policies and is carrying out a hideous plan aimed at emptying the Holy City of its Palestinian citizens through measures consisting of expulsion, deportation, settlement, confiscation of land, seizing Palestinians’ homes and giving them to outsider settlers, oppressing Palestinian citizens and imposing restrictions on them, imposing exorbitant fines and taxes on them, and denying them the right to construct and closing their institutions. The flagrant aggressions against the authentic history of the City of Al-Quds and the Islamic Civilization in the city, both through the excavation works carried out in the old city and its surroundings and through the stealing of its antiquities, the destruction of its heritage and the expansion of settlement activity inside the city, together with the attempts to falsify its history by Judaizing the names of the city’s quarters, streets and hills all require prompt intervention to preserve and defend this everlasting human civilization. Excellencies, Al-Quds has been and remains our major cause topping the priorities of our Organization which was created from the very beginning following the heinous arson of Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969. To face Israel’s extensive aggressions against the city of Al-Quds in recent times, the OIC organized an urgent ministerial meeting of the OIC Executive Committee in the fall of last year in order to address the arbitrary aggressions committed against Al-Quds. The meeting decided to dispatch a joint delegation of the OIC General Secretariat and the Islamic Development Bank to take stock of the condition of housing, education and health sectors in East Jerusalem and to identify the most urgent projects for financing. Special emphasis is placed recently on these fields by the OIC and its various organs, including the Islamic Development Bank which has lately made a contribution to the educational sector in the city of Al-Quds. As regards political action, I addressed the issue of the city of Al-Quds with a number of international decision makers and highlighted the dangers brought about by the Israeli practices. Thus, I informed the US Secretary of State during her visit to the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah last February that Al-Quds is a red line for the Islamic Ummah which rejects categorically any form of indulgence in this regard. In the same vein, I carried out prompt contacts with the Foreign Minister of Spain whose country is chairing the European Union, and the British Foreign Minister during my official visit to London a few weeks ago. I also contacted the EU Commissioner for External Relations, the UNESCO Director General and many influential international personalities and sent letters in this regard to a large number of ministers and high-level officials throughout the world. The challenge posed by Israeli settlements in Al-Quds, which is the reason for our meeting today, cannot be addressed with political action and condemnation alone. This challenge should be countered on the ground in Al-Quds itself by promoting the stability of the city’s inhabitants through housing projects, building and developing educational and health facilities and improving the living conditions of the population with a view to strengthening their steadfastness and helping them face the distress they are suffering on our behalf as they struggle to protect Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)’s place of night journey. Today the Ummah is invited, with its individuals, institutions, parliaments and with its private sector, each from its respective position, to make its contribution to the support of our first kiblah and of Palestine’s wounded city. In conclusion, I pray to Almighty Allah that He may grant success to our meeting and to guide it toward achieving its noble objectives in order to come out with effective support for the city of Al-Quds and its steadfast people. Wassalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullah
