Palestine Urged to Continue to Fight for East Jerusalem
The megaproject issue serves to put pressure on Palestine and other Arab countries that refuse to return to the negotiation table.
By
Musthafa Abd Rahman
·4 minutes read
AP Photo/Amr Nabil
The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb (second right), is greeted by participants of a conference on Jerusalem at the Al-Azhar Conference Center, in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday (17/1). United States President Trump was blasted again over Jerusalem, saying the US leader\'s decision to recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel\'s capital was "sinful."
CAIRO, KOMPAS – Egyptian politics observer Abdel Monem Said, in an article published in the Asharq Al-Aswat newspaper, called on the Arab world to be more realistic in looking at the Arab-Israel conflict, amid the significant imbalance of power between Arab countries and Israel.
He specifically called on Palestine to continue taking the approach of negotiations to get East Jerusalem to become the capital of the country they have built, particularly after the move by United States President Donald Trump of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel.
The issue of Palestine-Israel talks has resurfaced after two leading media outlets in the Middle East, namely Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi and Israel news site Yedioth Ahronoth, revealed speculations of a planned megaproject cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel for the next five to 15 years. The Saudi Arabia-Israel megaproject is part of the Palestine-Israel peace agreement proposal endorsed by the Trump government, which is often dubbed “the transaction of the century.”
Kompas reporter Musthafa Abd Rahman in Cairo, Egypt, reported that Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, in an international conference forum for the defense of Jerusalem city held by Al-Azhar University in Cairo on Wednesday (17/1), stressed that he no longer trusted the US as it did not respect the UN resolutions related to the Palestine issue by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel.
Israel media outlets Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv, which are known to have right-wing views, reported on Thursday (18/1) that the megaproject issue had been deliberately leaked to the public as the launch of the transaction of the century draws closer, scheduled to be done in the first quarter or, at the latest, the first semester of 2018.
The megaproject issue also serves to put pressure on Palestine and other Arab countries that refuse to return to the negotiation table mediated by the US. The Israel media also revealed that Trump’s move of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel in early December was part of the transaction of the century.
There has been no official statement from the Saudi Arabia government as yet regarding the reports about the megaproject. In an official statement quoted by Saudi Arabian news agency SPA in early January, Saudi Arabia Foreign Affairs Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir stressed that Saudi Arabia’s position was firm and has not changed from its view that the foundation of the solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict would depend on international reference, the Arab peace initiative and the target of the establishment of the state of Palestine with the 1967 border area and East Jerusalem as its capital city.
However, as reported by Ahronoth and Maariv, Trump, who is a former businessman, has used a business philosophy in the Middle East peace process. He moved away from the gradual strategy, which takes time, as adopted by previous US presidents before him, and implemented a one-transaction strategy with quick rewards from the transaction.
Trump wants the Israel-Palestine peace agreement to be reached as soon as possible so that a fully normalized relation between Israel and the Arab countries can be realized soon and so they can concentrate on facing Iran. Trump’s new tactics demand a huge peace incentive to stimulate the parties involved to accept the transaction. The Israel-Saudi Arabia megaproject is said to be an incentive so that Saudi Arabia and the Arab world can press Palestine to accept the transaction of the century. This has previously been done by former US president Jimmy Carter, when he gave an incentive of US$3.1 billion to Israel and $2.1 billion to Egypt each year to encourage Egypt-Israel to accept the peace agreement in Camp David in 1979.
Regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict, Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said in the international conference for the defense of Jerusalem in Cairo that the Indonesian government has always emphasized that Trump’s decision in regards to Jerusalem must be rejected and strongly condemned. This stance taken is a mandate of the Indonesian Constitution, which orders for the achievement of world peace. Peace can only be achieved if Palestine gets its independence, sovereignty and integrity as an equal member of the international community.