BEIRUT: Jerusalem seems to be emerging as the key issue on which all voices — Arab and non-Arab —will be united in the Islamic Summit next week at Lahore. … King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is reported to have said that whatever else, Sinai or Golan may be negotiable, but Jerusalem is not. It is said the King has remarked that one of his wishes is to offer prayers in the liberated Al-Aqsa mosque.

Algerians and Libyans do not conceal their view that Sinai and Golan are primarily the problems of Egyptians and Syrians, which they have a right to negotiate in the way they think proper. But Palestine is different. It is the key issue from which all other issues flow. It is a political, humanitarian issue and Jerusalem is something on which no Muslim worth his salt can compromise.

No one in the Arab world, neither leftists nor rightists, royalists nor West-oriented democrats will be prepared to fall into the snare of the proposal to internationalise Jerusalem. … The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem … said that since the treaty was signed by caliph Omar, and the Christian patriarch of Jerusalem, Muslims have controlled the city under the terms of the treaty.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2024