The Arab Thought Forum is following closely the events unfolding in the occupied city of Jerusalem, where the Israeli occupation authorities are insistent on continuously desecrating the Noble Sanctuary not to mention repeated attacks on the Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic religious and holy places. The Israeli occupation authorities are also resorting to excessive use of force against defenseless civilians performing prayer, including women, elderly people, seekers of knowledge and the guards of the mosque, expelling them and closing the area At the same time they are affording protection to the barbaric incursions of settlers and extremist Zionist groups, particularly the Temple organizations, who want to divide the Aqsa and seize every available opportunity to build the alleged Temple.
While the Forum salutes the steadfastness of the Arab Jerusalemites and their valiant resistance to those attempts, their heroic defense of the sacred elements of the Arab and Islamic nations and their legitimate human rights, it calls for practical positions and measures to bolster the survival of the Jerusalemites on their land through all available means, and to express a categorical rejection of Israeli aggression on Jerusalem, its Holy Places and religious endowments, and its Arab citizens.
And in light of the grave consequences of those Israeli practices, which have exceeded the boundaries of logic and international and humanitarian laws, the Forum calls for urgent measures to prevent engulfing the region in a religious war that would ignite extremism and terrorism throughout the world. This makes it imperative for the concerned international quarters, the Muslim states, the Security Council, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and all international and regional organizations, to fulfill their legal and moral obligations and responsibilities, and to speedily intervene to stop what is befalling the Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Places, and to protect the Arab Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories from aggression, violations and unjust Israeli policies and practices. The responsibility shouldered by the Hashemite leadership represented by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein in terms of custodianship of the Islamic and Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem in conjunction with the chairmanship of His Majesty King Mohammad VI of the Jerusalem Committee emanating from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is driving the efforts to protect the Aqsa Mosque and the Holy City against the practices of the occupation authorities and their contravention of international laws, covenants and customs in their desecration of the First Qibla and the third of the holy sanctuaries, the venue of the nocturnal ascent of the Prophet peace be upon him to heaven, and demands mobilization of a collective Arab and Islamic effort to put a stop to this aggression.
Within this framework the Forum underscores the necessity of urgently convening an Arab Summit, and an Islamic summit, with a view to discussing the various options in facing the Israeli aggression, and to assume unified positions towards the threats to which the Holy Places are exposed. The Summit should also take measures to end all forms of Judaiization, expropriations, physical violence, isolation and collective detentions perpetrated by the occupation authorities in the Holy City, as based on the resolutions of the international community which to date refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Summit should also reject all Israeli official measures, laws and positions relating to the Arab city of Jerusalem since its occupation in 1967, as embodied in all resolutions issued by the UN bodies and organizations, particularly the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, and the International Court of Justice which consider East Jerusalem to be an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories. This reflects the fact that those resolutions are part of international law, rendering them binding on all states.
The activation of these international legal guarantees and Israeli recalcitrance confronting them, demands that the positions of the Arabs and Muslims in facing those flagrant attacks are firm in order to safeguard the identity of Jerusalem the First Qibla and the third of the holy sanctuaries, and the city of the prophets. It is a known fact that the Judaiization measures continue to unfold as represented in the construction of settlements around and inside Jerusalem while connecting the city with a network of roads through the tunnels and bridges of West Jerusalem; and Israel, moreover, continues to take actions to decrease the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem by perpetrating colonialist patterns of action in terms of the demolition of houses, prohibiting the construction of new houses, prohibiting the exiled from returning to their homes, and hindering the movement of children insofar as having to traverse the racist wall of separation on a daily basis. It is important to note that no sovereign state in the world has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and even the highest federal court of the United States has emphasized in a recent ruling that the American Government does not recognize that Jerusalem is a part of Israel.
It is incumbent on Israel, in accordance with previous undertakings, to respect the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in patronizing the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Moreover, the Forum calls on all active forces in the Arab homeland and the Muslim world, to endeavor by peaceful means to encourage the Muslims from all corners of the earth to visit the Aqsa Mosque, thereby following the example of the Messenger of God peace be upon him. The Prophet said: "Do not set out on a journey except for three Mosques i.e. Al-Masjid-AI-Haram, the Mosque of Allah's Messenger (Pbuh), and the Mosque of Al-Aqsa, (Mosque of Jerusalem)." This is a corroboration of the attachment of the Muslims to the Aqsa Mosque and the call for them to contribute to its liberation, and to assist in the steadfastness of the Jerusalemites, while avoiding, in doing so, providing any kind of support to the occupiers.
The Forum continues through the program “Jerusalem is in our Conscience,” and under the patronage of its President HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, to study all aspects serving the cause of Jerusalem whilst keeping it alive in the conscience of the generations, and is prepared to cooperate with intellectual, academic and cultural institutions, both Arab and Islamic, in this field.
