Alwaght- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that the holy city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) can be the gate to either peace or war, and that it is up to the US to decide which path to choose.
Addressing al-Azhar International Conference on al-Quds in Cairo on Wednesday, Abbas denounced as "sinful" President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize the city as Israeli regime's capital.
Washington, he noted, disqualified itself as a broker in the moribund talks between Israelis and Palestinian aimed at resolving the occupation issue.
In December 2017, Trump said Washington was recognizing al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and planning to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. The move ignited international condemnation including humiliation of the US at the United Nations General Assembly which strongly denounced the move.
During the Cairo meeting, Abbas and al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb called on Arabs to show support for the Palestinian people.
The event aims to foster awareness about al-Quds and its Arab identity and the role of the international community regarding the holy city, al-Azhar said.
It the first such gathering in the past 30 years, al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb noted in his address to the conference.
This year's conference aims to underscore the need to "stand up to the barbaric Zionist absurdity of the 21st century, which is supported by international policies… drawn by the Zionist entity and its policies," al-Tayyeb told the audience.
Al-Tayyeb expressed disapproval that school curricula in the Arab and Muslim world fail to raise awareness about the Palestinian issue, saying that youth in Israeli settlements are raised through "educational curricula… songs and prayers that constitute hostility, fuel them with racism and hatred of all that is Arab and Muslim."
He called for declaring 2018 the "Year of Al-Quds," suggesting material and moral support for people of the city, as well as ongoing cultural and media activities to be sponsored by leading Arab, Islamic and civil society organizations.
Palestinians have declared al-Quds as the capital of a future Palestinian independent state, and that its heritage should remain intact.
