Al-Quds (Jerusalem)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gra­cious, the Most Merciful.

As-salā­mu ‘alaykum wa-rah­mat­ul­lāhi wa-barakā­tuh (Peace, Bless­ings & Mer­cy of Allah be upon You).

This state­ment is being issued on the 07th of Decem­ber 2017 and super­sedes all pre­vi­ous state­ments on the subject.

سُبۡحَـٰنَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَسۡرَىٰ بِعَبۡدِهِۦ لَيۡلاً۬ مِّنَ ٱلۡمَسۡجِدِ ٱلۡحَرَامِ إِلَى ٱلۡمَسۡجِدِ ٱلۡأَقۡصَا ٱلَّذِى بَـٰرَكۡنَا حَوۡلَهُ ۥ لِنُرِيَهُ ۥ مِنۡ ءَايَـٰتِنَآ‌ۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلۡبَصِيرُ

[17:1] Exalt­ed is He who took His Ser­vant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose sur­round­ings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hear­ing, the Seeing.

Al-Quds (Jerusalem) is one of the most holi­est cities of Islam and we agree with the MCB that this sends a clear mes­sage of hos­til­i­ty to the Mus­lims around the world.  This is not a Mid­dle east or an Arab-Israeli issue but it is an issue which affects over a bil­lion Mus­lims, worldwide.

We also echo the sen­ti­ments of Justin Wel­by (Arch­bish­op of Can­ter­bury), “The sta­tus quo of the City of Jerusalem is one of the few sta­ble ele­ments of hope for peace and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion for Chris­tians, Jews and Mus­lims in the Holy Lands. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

We also note that the local church­es in Jerusalem have advised Pres­i­dent Trump to main­tain the Inter­na­tion­al sta­tus of Jerusalem.

We put forth that this step by the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion is in vio­la­tion of UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003), 1850 (2008) and 2334 (2016) which stated:

…Reaf­firms that the estab­lish­ment by Israel of set­tle­ments in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ry occu­pied since 1967, includ­ing East Jerusalem, has no legal valid­i­ty and con­sti­tutes a fla­grant vio­la­tion under inter­na­tion­al law and a major obsta­cle to the achieve­ment of the two-State solu­tion and a just, last­ing and com­pre­hen­sive peace…

Unequivocal support for Palestinians:

It has been a 100 years since the British For­eign Sec­re­tary Arthur Balfour’s Dec­la­ra­tion. Pales­tini­ans have been denied jus­tice in their own home­land, since. Despite Inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion, the abuse of Pales­tini­ans, ille­gal set­tle­ments and their mur­der has car­ried on unabat­ed by the state of Israel.

We, along with the British and Inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty remain com­mit­ted to the cause of Pales­tini­ans who are being oppressed in their home­land. We call upon the British and the Inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to stand­by and assist the Pales­tini­ans and put mea­sures in place to imme­di­ate­ly stop the human right abus­es being car­ried out in the Holy lands.

We were deeply dis­ap­point­ed to hear of Pres­i­dent Trump’s deci­sion to move the Amer­i­can embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, thus recog­nis­ing it as the cap­i­tal of Israel. This is a trag­ic and regret­table deci­sion by the US Admin­is­tra­tion and a seri­ous blow to the peace process. The Mus­lim world and the Pales­tini­ans have trust­ed the Amer­i­cans to be non­par­ti­san in the peace process and this is a ham­mer blow to the Amer­i­can cred­i­bil­i­ty. This will only embold­en those in Israel who are opposed to the peace process and deliv­ers no ben­e­fit to any side. It is in the inter­ests of both Israel the Pales­tini­ans to stay com­mit­ted to the peace process, to stay the course and to con­tin­ue to make progress. It will also desta­bilise the Mid­dle East and sub­se­quent­ly the world.

We would like to assert that the deci­sion by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion is in clear vio­la­tion mul­ti­ple UN res­o­lu­tions such as 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003), 1850 (2008) and 2334 (2016), some of land­mark res­o­lu­tions are as follows:

United Nations Security Council Resolution 252 (1968)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 252  states:

Deplores the fail­ure of Israel to com­ply with” Gen­er­al Assem­bly res­o­lu­tions 2253 and 2254, con­sid­ers Israel’s annex­a­tion of Jerusalem “invalid”, and calls upon Israel “to rescind all such mea­sures already tak­en and to desist forth­with from tak­ing any fur­ther action which tends to change the sta­tus of Jerusalem

United Nations Security Council Resolution 267 (1969)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 267 states:

Recalls res­o­lu­tion 252 and Gen­er­al Assem­bly res­o­lu­tions 2253 and 2254, notes that “since the adop­tion of the above-men­tioned res­o­lu­tions Israel has tak­en fur­ther mea­sures tend­ing to change the sta­tus of the City of Jerusalem”, reaf­firms “the estab­lished prin­ci­ple that acqui­si­tion of ter­ri­to­ry by mil­i­tary con­quest is inad­mis­si­ble”, “Deplores the fail­ure of Israel to show any regard for athe res­o­lu­tions”, “Cen­sures in the strongest terms all mea­sures tak­en to change the sta­tus of the City of Jerusalem”, “Con­firms that all leg­isla­tive and admin­is­tra­tive mea­sures and actions tak­en by Israel which pur­port to alter the sta­tus of Jerusalem, includ­ing expro­pri­a­tion of land and prop­er­ties there­on, are invalid and can­not change that sta­tus”, and urgent­ly calls on Israel to rescind the mea­sures tak­en to annex Jerusalem.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 271 (1969)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 267 states:

Express­es grief “at the exten­sive dam­age caused by arson to the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem” on August 21, 1969 “under the mil­i­tary occu­pa­tion of Israel”, reaf­firms “the estab­lished prin­ci­ple that acqui­si­tion of ter­ri­to­ry by mil­i­tary con­quest is inad­mis­si­ble”, “Deter­mines that the exe­crable act of des­e­cra­tion and pro­fa­na­tion of the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque empha­sizes the imme­di­ate neces­si­ty of Israel’s desist­ing from act­ing in vio­la­tion” pre­vi­ous res­o­lu­tions and rescind­ing mea­sures to annex Jerusalem, calls on Israel “to observe the pro­vi­sions of the Gene­va Con­ven­tions and inter­na­tion­al law gov­ern­ing mil­i­tary occu­pa­tion”, and con­demns Israel’s fail­ure to com­ply with pre­vi­ous resolutions.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 298 (1971)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 298 states:

Recalls res­o­lu­tions 252 and 267 and Gen­er­al Assem­bly res­o­lu­tions 2253 and 2254 con­cern­ing Israel’s mea­sures to annex Jerusalem, reaf­firms “the prin­ci­ple that acqui­si­tion of ter­ri­to­ry by mil­i­tary con­quest is inad­misa­s­i­ble”, notes “the non-com­pli­ance by Israel” of the recalled res­o­lu­tions, deplores Israel’s fail­ure to respect the res­o­lu­tions, con­firms that Israel’s actions “are total­ly invalid”, and urgent­ly calls on Israel to rescind its mea­sures and take “no fur­ther steps in the occu­pied sec­tion of Jerusalem” to change the sta­tus of the city.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 446 (1979)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 446 states:

Affirms “once more that the Fourth Gene­va Con­ven­tion … is applic­a­ble to the Arab ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied by Israel since 1967, includ­ing Jerusalem”, “Deter­mines that the pol­i­cy and prac­tices of Israel in estab­lish­ing set­tle­ments in the Pales­tin­ian and oth­er Arab ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied since 1967 have no legal valid­i­ty and con­sti­tute a seri­ous obstruc­tion to achiev­ing a com­pre­hen­sive, just and last­ing peace in the Mid­dle East”, “Strong­ly deplores the fail­ure of Israel to abide by” res­o­lu­tions 237, 252, and 298, and Gen­er­al Assem­bly res­o­lu­tions 2253 and 2254, and calls on Israel “as the occu­py­ing Pow­er” to abide by the Fourth Gene­va Con­ven­tion, to “rescind its pre­vi­ous mea­sures and to desist from any action which would result in chang­ing the legal sta­tus and geo­graph­i­cal nature and mate­ri­al­ly affect­ing the demo­graph­ic com­po­si­tion of the Arab ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied since 1967, includ­ing Jerusalem, and, in par­tic­u­lar, not to trans­fer parts of its own civil­ian pop­u­la­tion into the occu­pied Arab territories”.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 452 (1979)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 446 states:

Strong­ly deplores “the lack of co-oper­a­tion of Israel” with the Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Com­mis­sion “estab­lished under res­o­lu­tion 446 (1979) to exam­ine the sit­u­a­tion relat­ing to set­tle­ments in the Arab ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied since 1967, includ­ing Jerusalem”, con­sid­ers “that the pol­i­cy of Israel in estab­lish­ing set­tle­ments in the occu­pied Arab ter­ri­to­ries has no legal valid­i­ty and con­sti­tutes a vio­la­tion of the Fourth Gene­va Con­ven­tion”, express­es deep con­cern at Israel’s pol­i­cy of con­struct­ing set­tle­ments “in the occu­pied Arab ter­ri­to­ries, includ­ing Jerusalem, and its con­se­quences for the local Arab and Pales­tin­ian pop­u­la­tion”, and calls on Israel to cease such activities.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 465 (1980)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 465 states:

Strong­ly deplores Israel’s refusal to co-oper­ate with the Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Com­mis­sion, regrets Israel’s “for­mal rejec­tion of” res­o­lu­tions 446 and 452, deplores Israel’s deci­sion “to offi­cial­ly sup­port Israeli set­tle­ment” in the occu­pied ter­ri­to­ries, express­es deep con­cern over Israel’s set­tle­ment pol­i­cy “and its con­se­quences for the local Arab and Pales­tin­ian pop­u­la­tion”, “Strong­ly deplores the deci­sion of Israel to pro­hib­it the free trav­el” of the may­or of Hebron “to appear before the Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil”, and “Deter­mines that all mea­sures tak­en by Israel to change the phys­i­cal char­ac­ter, demo­graph­ic com­po­si­tion, insti­tu­tion­al struc­ture or sta­tus of the Pales­tin­ian and oth­er Arab ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied since 1967, includ­ing Jerusalem, or any part there­of, have no legal valid­i­ty and that Israel’s pol­i­cy and prac­tices of set­tling parts of its pop­u­la­tion and new immi­grants in those ter­ri­to­ries con­sti­tute a fla­grant vio­la­tion of the Fourth Gene­va Convention”.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 476 (1980)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 476 states:

Deplor­ing the per­sis­tence of Israel, in chang­ing the phys­i­cal char­ac­ter, demo­graph­ic com­po­si­tion, insti­tu­tion­al struc­ture and the sta­tus of the Holy City of Jerusalem,

United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 (1980)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 478 states:

Reaf­firm­ing again that the acqui­si­tion of ter­ri­to­ry by force is inadmissible,

Deeply con­cerned over the enact­ment of a “basic law” in the Israeli Knes­set pro­claim­ing a change in the char­ac­ter and sta­tus of the Holy City of Jerusalem, with its impli­ca­tions for peace and security,

Not­ing that Israel has not com­plied with res­o­lu­tion 476 (1980).

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1322 (2000)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1322 states:

Express­es deep con­cern “by the trag­ic events that have tak­en place” since Sep­tem­ber 28, 2000 “that have led to numer­ous deaths and injuries, most­ly among Pales­tini­ans”, “Deplores the provo­ca­tion car­ried out at Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem” on Sep­tem­ber 28, 2000 “and the sub­se­quent vio­lence there and at oth­er Holy Places, as well as in oth­er areas through­out the ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied by Israel since 1967, result­ing in over 80 Pales­tin­ian deaths and many oth­er casu­al­ties”, “Con­demns acts of vio­lence, espe­cial­ly the exces­sive use of force against Pales­tini­ans, result­ing in injury and loss of human life”, and “Calls upon Israel, the occu­py­ing Pow­er, to abide scrupu­lous­ly by its legal oblig­a­tions and its respon­si­bil­i­ties under the Fourth Gene­va Convention”.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016)

Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1322 states:

…Reaf­firms that the estab­lish­ment by Israel of set­tle­ments in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ry occu­pied since 1967, includ­ing East Jerusalem, has no legal valid­i­ty and con­sti­tutes a fla­grant vio­la­tion under inter­na­tion­al law and a major obsta­cle to the achieve­ment of the two-State solu­tion and a just, last­ing and com­pre­hen­sive peace…

Spiritual Action Plan for Muslims in Britain:

We are Mus­lims. There­fore, our first reac­tion in any sit­u­a­tion should be to reflect upon our actions and to turn to Allah Ta’ala in seek­ing for­give­ness and to beseech Him for his assis­tance and help. We urge all Mus­lims in Britain to repent and make sin­cere Dua to Allah Ta’ala to help the Palestinians

Encour­age your fam­i­ly, friends and com­mu­ni­ty to per­form indi­vid­ual prayers and even organ­ise Qunut Nazi­lah in your communities.

Spend your mon­ey and give Sadaqah in addi­tion to your Duas to invite the Mer­cy of Allah Ta’ala.

Change your life for the bet­ter and do your best to come clos­er to Allah Ta’ala by ful­fill­ing His com­mand­ments and fol­low­ing the Sun­nah of Prophet Muham­mad (Peace be upon Him).

Political Action Plan for Muslims in Britain:

This short arti­cle will, Insha’Allah, walk you through the process of engag­ing with polit­i­cal and oth­er organ­i­sa­tions, and your MP urg­ing them to express your wish­es in Parliament.

Engage your MP: