UNSC weighs measure against US move on Jerusalem
AFP
The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution affirming that any change to the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be reversed, in response to the US decision to recognize the city as Israels capital, reports AFP from United Nations, United States. Egypt circulated the draft text on Saturday, and diplomats said the council could vote on the proposed measure as early as Monday. Breaking with the international consensus, US President Donald Trump this month announced that he would recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, sparking protests and strong condemnation.
The draft resolution obtained by AFP stresses that Jerusalem is an issue to be resolved through negotiations and expresses deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem, without specifically mentioning Trumps move.
Any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded, it said.
Diplomats said they expected the United States to use its veto power to block the measure while most, if not all, of the 14 other council members were expected to back the draft resolution.
Another report adds from Jakarta, tens of thousands of Indonesians protested yesterday against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, the latest show of support for the Palestinians in the country with the worlds largest Muslim population.
The rally was organised by the top Islamic authority the Indonesian Ulema Council and supported by the government as well as several other Islamic organisations.
Police said 80,000 protesters gathered at the National Monument, a tower that looms over central Jakarta, waving the Palestine flag and banners reading Free Palestine as they chanted God is greatest!
This is my solidarity as a Muslim to my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters in
Palestine... the Al-Aqsa mosque, a historical mosque for Muslims, is there (in Jerusalem), said Hermawati, from the nearby city of Bogor, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
Dressed mostly in white, the demonstrators urged the US to change its decision.
Indonesias religious affairs minister and Jakartas governor were among those at the protest site just a few metres from the US embassy, which was cordoned off behind coils of razor wire.
Isnt it the governments job to work on the aspiration of the majority of Indonesians? And the government has tried its best so Palestine can achieve its rights and independence, Religious Affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin told the crowd.
Indonesia has condemned President Donald Trumps decision, with President Joko Widodo joining other world Islamic leaders last Wednesday in an emergency summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul.
The leaders urged world powers to recognise occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine and declared Trumps decision null and void legally.
The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution which would find that any change to the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be reversed.
The status of Jerusalem, a city considered holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims, is a sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel sees the entire city as its undivided capital. The Palestinians want the eastern sector, which the international community regards as annexed by Israel in 1967, as the capital of their future state. US Vice President Mike Pence will visit Jerusalem on Wednesday, wading into the crisis over one of the most controversial issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees the whole of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.
