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Palestinian demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags
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GAZA
CITY, October 2 (IslamOnline & New Agencies) - Around 2,000
Palestinian union members turned out in central Gaza City Wednesday,
October 2, to protest against a bid by the U.S. Congress to recognize
occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and in support of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The
Palestinians were bussed in by Palestinian unions to protest the
signing by U.S. President George W. Bush of a congressional bill
calling for the U.S. embassy in Israel to be moved from Tel Aviv to
occupied Jerusalem, implicitly recognizing it as the Israeli capital.
Palestinians
claim Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state.
The
Gaza demonstrators burned U.S. and Israeli flags, and shouted their
support for elected President Arafat, whom Israel and the United
States have demanded the removal of, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
The
Palestinian President described Wednesday the U.S. congressional
recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as a
"disaster," said AFP.
"It's
a disaster, no one can keep silent about it, not Muslims, nor
Christians, nor the Arab world," Arafat said outside his battered
presidential headquarters in the re-occupied West Bank town of
Ramallah, AFP reported.
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President
Arafat described the U.S. congressional recognition of Jerusalem
as Israel's capital as a "disaster" |
Earlier
in Cairo, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said the law demanding the U.S.
embassy in Israel be moved from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem was a
violation of U.N. resolutions.
"This
decision constitutes a symbolic recognition of Jerusalem as capital of
Israel, in blatant violation of U.N. resolutions," Mussa said in
a statement.
"The
Arab position is clear, it considers Jerusalem as capital of an
independent Palestinian state," Mussa added.
He
expressed "worries" about the law and called on Bush to
"undertake the required measures for the implementation of his
vision" announced in June of a Palestinian state living side by
side with Israel in peace and security.
Bush
on Monday signed the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, but in
an accompanying message he reserved the right to ignore provisions of
the bill that infringe on his constitutional responsibility for U.S.
foreign policy.
The
Bush administration had been urging lawmakers to remove language in
the bill calling for the relocation of the embassy, but Congress went
ahead and included the requirements in the bill.
Along
with many other countries, the United States has its embassy in Israel
in Tel Aviv, considering that Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel
occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed, is considered
by Palestinians as the capital of their future state.
The
Israeli annexation of Arab east Jerusalem has never been recognized by
the international community and Washington has consistently held that
the city's status must be negotiated by the Israelis and Palestinians
in the context of a final peace deal.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher also expressed Wednesday Egypt's
"deep regret" over the U.S. law.
"We
deeply regret the adoption of this bill, especially in the current
circumstances, this measures comes as a encouragement to Israel,"
Maher told reporters, quoted by AFP.
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The U.S. should "exert pressure on Israel to implement international resolutions, instead of giving it a kind of a reward," Maher said |
Egypt
calls on the U.S. Congress and administration to "exert pressure
on Israel to implement international resolutions, instead of giving it
a kind of a reward that is unacceptable in the current
circumstances," the minister said.
Maher
said Arab states would discuss the "measures they have to take to
underline their refusal of anything that could harm [the status of]
Jerusalem."
He
said Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud, whose country currently
chairs the 22-member Arab League, had contacted him over the new U.S.
law.
Meanwhile,
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) added Wednesday its voice to Arab
and Islamic condemnation of the newly signed U.S. law.
"The
GCC expresses deep concern over the negative consequences of the bill
in harming the Middle East peace process in general and the
Palestinian cause in particular," the Riyadh-based secretariat of
the six-nation alliance said in a statement carried by AFP.
The
legislation "violates international law and the declared policy
of the United States, which calls for deciding the status of Jerusalem
through negotiations," the statement added.
The
GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), urged influential world powers to press
Israel to comply with U.N. resolutions and withdraw from occupied
Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem.
