Arafat urges Christians to protest Jerusalem move

Yasser Arafat called on Christians Thursday to join Muslims in rejecting a US congressional demand that Jerusalem be recognized as Israel’s capital amid widespread fury in the Islamic world over the latest affront.

“No one can touch Jerusalem,” the Palestinian leader said in a meeting with representatives of the Palestinian Christian community, with which he has close ties, at his wrecked headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“I call on Muslim and Christian nations to act against any decision attacking (the status) of Jerusalem,” Arafat also told reporters after the meeting, although he did not elaborate any further on the discussions. Arafat on Wednesday called Congress’ decision a “disaster.” Washington rushed to calm Arab rage at the bill signed into law by congressional President George W. Bush this week allowing for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to be moved to the Holy City.

The move implicitly recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, although the Jewish state’s 1967 annexation of the disputed city has never been acknowledged by the international community.

Despite Bush’s insistence that he reserved the right to override the clause in the bill as he signed it, the law caused a storm of protest across the Middle East, while Israel has kept quiet on the issue.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has called for a meeting of Muslim states following the US move, the official news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

Kharrazi urged that the Al-Quds committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference meet to discuss the consequences of a new US law.

Washington’s top Arab allies, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, also voiced anger at the move.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the decision constitutes a “symbolic recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, in blatant violation of UN resolutions.” His criticism was followed by similar remarks from the Gulf Cooperation Council that groups US friends Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Cairo, some 60 Egyptian women gathered in front of the US Embassy on Thursday to condemn the Americans.

“Down, down USA,” chanted the demonstrators who assembled some 50 meters from the embassy in central Cairo.

“Palestinian, avenge yourself … Baghdad, we haven’t forgotten you, all the Arab peoples are ready to sacrifice for you,” they shouted.

Police deployed massively around the embassy but did not intervene, as the demonstration broke up peacefully.

Yasser Arafat called on Christians Thursday to join Muslims

So muslims can also grab Jerusalem and forbid Chrisitians from entering it, like the other islamic holy sites?

We Christians didn't forgot what you and your thugs did in Lebanon! And now we should help you, knowing when you have finished off the Jews you will come for us?

An open letter to Arafat (Joseph Farah)

Yasir Arafat’s Planned Christian Genocide

Yasser Arafat and the Christians of Lebanon

Why does Congress have to keep repeating itself?

from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c105:1:./temp/~c105HuQuMo::

Relating to the 30th anniversary of the reunification of the City of Jerusalem. (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)

105th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 60

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Relating to the 30th anniversary of the reunification of the City of Jerusalem.

HCON 60 EH

105th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 60

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas for 3,000 years Jerusalem has been the focal point of Jewish religious devotion;

Whereas Jerusalem today is also considered a holy city by members of the Christian and Muslim faiths;

Whereas there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem for three millennia and a Jewish majority in the city since the 1840's;

Whereas the once thriving Jewish majority of the historic Old City of Jerusalem was driven out by force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War;

Whereas from 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem was a divided city and Israeli citizens of all faiths as well as Jewish citizens of all states were denied access to holy sites in the area controlled by Jordan;

Whereas in 1967 Jerusalem was reunited by Israel during the conflict known as the Six Day War;

Whereas since 1967 Jerusalem has been a united city, and persons of all religious faiths have been guaranteed full access to holy sites within the city;

Whereas this year marks the 30th year that Jerusalem has been administered as a unified city in which the rights of all faiths have been respected and protected;

Whereas in 1990 the United States Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 and House Concurrent Resolution 290 declaring that Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, `must remain an undivided city' and calling on Israel and the Palestinians to undertake negotiations to resolve their differences;

Whereas Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel later cited Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 as having `helped our neighbors reach the negotiating table' to produce the historic Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, signed in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 1993; and

Whereas the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45), which became law on November 8, 1995, states as a matter of United States policy that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress--

(1) congratulates the residents of Jerusalem and the people of Israel on the 30th anniversary of the reunification of that historic city;

(2) strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel during the past 30 years;

(3) calls upon the President and the Secretary of State to affirm publicly as a matter of United States policy that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel; and

(4) urges United States officials to refrain from any actions that contradict this policy.
Passed the House of Representatives June 10, 1997.

Attest:

Clerk.

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