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Muslims Discuss Blockade on Israel after Intrusion into Mosque
DAMASCUS, July 29, (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Some Muslim Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority opened a meeting here Sunday to study ways of imposing a new economic blockade on Israel and boycotting foreign companies that do business with the Jewish state, the French news agency AFP reported.
"We are meeting today in Damascus to put into place one of our most noble national missions," the head of Syria's office for the Israel boycott, Mohammad al-Ajami, told the opening of the two-day meeting.
He asked the nations to "impose an economic blockade on the Zionist enemy and the other parties which support its failing economy and its war effort."
Ahmed Khazaa, head of the Damascus-based Central Office for the Boycott of Israel (OBI), which organized the meeting, said a boycott would be an effective means of punishing Israel over its continued aggression against the Palestinians during their 10-month-old uprising, which has so far claimed more than 600Palestinian lives, according to Western figures.
He said the boycott would be "a form of peaceful resistance, which conforms to international law since it is based on the right to self-defense and the freedom to choose one's business partners," AFP reported.
In addition to Syria and the Palestinian Authority, 11 countries have sent representatives to the meeting: Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Somalia.
They are notably expected to study an OBI plan drawn up in February to halt the third-party export of Israel goods to Arab countries.
The meeting marks a reactivation of the OBI, which was set up in 1951 by the Arab League, but has not met since April 1993 because of a lack of quorum.
After the 1991 Gulf War and the launch of the Middle East peace process, most of the Arab countries yielded to U.S. pressure and lifted the boycott of third party companies dealing with Israel.
The reactivation of the OBI was discussed at the March 27-28 Arab summit in Amman upon the request of Syria, which is pushing for a tougher line in the face of far-rightist Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The OBI's initial task was to update every six month a "black list" of companies to be banned by the Arab states, including Israeli companies and companies belonging to other countries dealing with Israel.
The Arab rally in Damascus comes in the wake of increased Israeli aggression on Palestinians and encroachment on holy Muslim sites in Jerusalem as hundreds of Israeli occupation security forces stormed Sunday the al-Aqsa mosque compound with tear gas and stun grenades.
A group of ultra-nationalist extremist Jews known as the Temple Mount Faithful inflamed tensions in the occupied city by laying a symbolic cornerstone for a new Jewish temple on Haram-al-Sharif, which some Israeli Jews claim is the site for an Israeli holy site, news agencies reported.
The move has triggered fury throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and the entire Arab world, with calls on Palestinians to turn out in force to block the so-called Temple Mount Faithful from violating Islam's third holiest site.
Appalled by the rising number of Palestinian dead during the 10-month-old Intifada or uprising, which - according to Western figures - has so far claimed about 550 Palestinian lives, Arab officials around the region have classed the Israeli ceremony as another dangerous step toward all-out war.
Hawkish Sharon barged into the holy al-Aqsa compound in September, accompanied by a horde of security guards, in a provocative move that sparked the al-Aqsa Intifada or uprising.
Israel came into existence in 1948 after Jewish groups launched a war against their Muslim neighbors in 1948 and declared today's state of Israel. Arabs and Muslims believe Israel is an extension of the colonial period that saw the occupation of Muslim and Arab countries by Western powers.
Israel, backed by some Western powers, claims Jerusalem as its capital, but this is not recognized by Muslims or the United Nations.
The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world following the Diaspora.
Israel is also founded on a set of religious myths and rabbinical sayings that are staunchly disputed by Arabs and Muslims, the original owners of the land.
Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Muslims, mostly represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Israel's Arab Muslim neighbors, on the other.
Millions of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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