Istanbul/Ramallah - A summit of Islamic nations declared East
Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state on Wednesday, in a
counter move to the decision by US President Donald Trump to
recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Amid a day of fiery rhetoric at the 56-nation summit in Istanbul,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will seek a UN General
Assembly vote to nullify Israel's UN membership and demand full
Palestinian membership in the UN Security Council.
"We will go to the UN General Assembly regarding Israel's membership
because its membership is in violation of all international
resolutions and we'll ask the Security Council for full membership in
the General Assembly," Abbas said on Wednesday.
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Abbas and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan both said the US could no
longer be regarded as a mediator. The Palestinian leader has
requested UN sponsorship of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Israel is "a country that feeds on blood and expands its borders by
brutally killing children, civilians and women," said Erdogan.
"Hey Trump, are you standing behind this Israel? There's occupation
here, there's torture here, there's terror here, are you defending
that?" said the Turkish leader, who has been leading the charge
against Trump's announcement this month, which included plans to move
the US embassy to Jerusalem.
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The OIC issued a statement saying it would "invite all countries to
recognize the state of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied
capital."
In 2012, the UN General Assembly recognized the state of Palestine as
a non-member observer state.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is "not
impressed" by the Palestinian statements, in an apparent reference to
Abbas' declarations.
"It is better for the Palestinians to recognize reality and act for
peace, not for radicalization, and to recognize another fact about
Jerusalem: not only is it the capital of Israel, we also maintain in
Jerusalem freedom of worship for all religions," Netanyahu said at an
event at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem.
Sources said more than two dozen leaders attended the summit and, in
all, 56 nations were represented.
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Abbas told the summit the US was no longer "qualified to mediate in
the peace process" and demanded that a "new mechanism" headed by the
UN be established to achieve a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem
as its capital.
"These unilateral steps by President Trump will not give any
legitimacy to Israel in Jerusalem. It is a Palestinian Arab Muslim
Christian city, the eternal capital of the state of Palestine," Abbas
said.
Abbas' speech comes a week after Trump declared Jerusalem to be
Israel's capital, upending decades of US policy towards the divided
city and sparking a diplomatic firestorm.
The US has long been the main interlocutor for the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, most notably by brokering the Oslo
Accords, signed in 1993, which paved the way for establishing Abbas'
PA government.
"There can be no Palestinian state without the city of Jerusalem as
its capital, and there will be no peace in the region and in the
world without it," he added.
Other attendees at the summit included Jordanian King Abdullah II,
Qatari leader Sheikh Tamim al-Thani and Iranian President
Hassan Rowhani.
In Saudi Arabia, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who did not attend the
OIC meeting, described Trump's decision as a "flagrant bias against
Palestinian people's historical and invariable rights" in Jerusalem.
He asserted the Palestinians' right to an independent state with East
Jerusalem as its capital.
On Wednesday, small-scale clashes occurred throughout the West Bank
and in the Gaza Strip with over a dozen injuries.
Palestinian youths have clashed with Israeli forces in recent days,
leading to two deaths among protesters in Gaza. However, fears of
widespread violence in the Palestinian Territories have not
materialized.
Israel captured the eastern half of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War
and later annexed the territory. Palestinians hope for East Jerusalem
to be the capital of their future state.