GA/PAL/1169
Secretary-General Urges a Way be Found to Make City Capital of Both Israel, Future Palestinian State
(Received from a UN Information Officer.)
RABAT, Morocco, 1 July - As the United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine opened today in Rabat, Morocco, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other participants stressed that resolving the status of Jerusalem was priority for peace in the Middle East, and that unilateral Israeli activity to change the facts on the ground there must cease.
"Jerusalem remains a permanent status issue and a way should be found for the city to emerge as the capital of both Israel and a future State of Palestine, with arrangements for the holy sites acceptable to all," Mr. Ban said in his opening statement delivered by Bader Al-Dafa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
Under the theme of "Strengthening the support by African States for a just and lasting solution of the question of Jerusalem", the two-day Meeting, convened by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, discussed ways to build international consensus on a just and viable solution of the question of Jerusalem, with African States and other actors having a role in that effort.
Mr. Ban said in the statement that settlement construction in Jerusalem should stop, as should measures that discriminated against Palestinian residents of the City. In addition, he called for the reopening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem in accordance with the Road Map facilitated by the Middle East Quartet.
At the opening session, Mr. Al-Dafa was joined by Taïb Fassi-Fihri, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Morocco, as well as Zahir Tanin, Head of the Delegation of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and Ahmed Qurei, Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who delivered the keynote address.
In his presentation, Mr. Qurei, describing Israeli efforts to erase the Palestinian presence through home demolitions, evictions, land expropriations and revocation of residency rights, stressed that negotiations on the permanent status of Jerusalem could not be put off.
He said the Muslim position on Jerusalem was that the City was the heart of historical Palestine and must be the capital of a future Palestinian State. Control of Muslim and Christian holy places, he added, could not be the subject of negotiations or alterations under any circumstance. It was, however, possible to discuss making all of Jerusalem an open city, but it was urgent that such arrangements be negotiated. " Jerusalem is the key to peace, but it is also the key to war and perpetual conflict", he said.
Mr. Tanin, Head of the Palestinian Rights Committee's Delegation, asserted that any agreement that did not make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian State would not lead to sustainable peace. Meanwhile, the City's status must not be determined by annexation or changes on the ground, he stressed. He called on the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to take action against violations of the Convention.
Opening the Meeting this morning, Mr. Fassi-Fihri, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Morocco, welcomed participants and expressed pride in his country's efforts and those undertaken as part of the African Group to support Palestinians in achieving their aspirations for self-determination, expressing hope that the Meeting could mobilize more support for practical actions towards that end.
In the afternoon, the first plenary of the Meeting was held. Expert presentations were made by Albert Aghazarian, Professor of History in Jerusalem; Daniel Ben Simon, Member of the Israeli Knesset from the Labour Party; Abdelouhab Maalmi, Professor of International Relations at the University Hassan II in Casablanca; Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa; John B. Quigley, Professor of Law of Ohio State University in Columbus; and Markus Kaim, Head of the Research Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.
The experts assessed the current situation in Jerusalem and prospects for a just resolution there, led by Mr. Aghazarian's description of the constrictions and confusions of being a Palestinian in the City. Mr. Ben Simon expressed optimism for a resolution, seeing general acceptance of a two-State solution in Israel, and Messrs. Maalmi and Magoba suggested that the religious significance of the City, instead of being a divisive element, could be used as a lever to break the deadlock in peace negotiations.
Mr. Quigley, on the other hand, maintained that the legal status of Jerusalem should not be subjected to negotiation, since its status as part of a State of Palestine had been clear since the end of the First World War. He preferred a judicial process, declaring, "It is critical that the international community ensure that a resolution of the status of Jerusalem is achieved that accords with international legality".
Additional statements were made today by the representative of Egypt on behalf of the Non- Aligned Movement, and the representatives of Mauritania, the United Arab Emirates, China, Turkey, Kuwait and Jordan. The representative of the Arab League also made a statement.
Those speakers called for greater African and international mobilization to realize the aspirations of the Palestinian people, praising the host country for its actions to protect the Palestinian heritage of Jerusalem through the Al-Quds Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine will convene again tomorrow, 2 July, at 10 a.m., to hold its second plenary session on Jerusalem as a permanent status issue in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.