Dubai: Muslims across the world Sunday took to the streets in solidarity with the Palestinian people, from Indonesia, to Bosnia to India and Turkey.
Muslim clerics, addressing demonstrators in Jakarta, called for a boycott of American products in protest against President Donald Trump’s recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Wearing white robes and carrying banners reading “Indonesia unites for Palestine” and “Save our Palestine,” an estimated 80,000 people rallied in the capital of the world’s largest Muslim nation in the 10th straight day of protests.
Anwar Abbas, a top cleric from the Indonesian Council of Ulema, read a petition calling on Indonesians to stop buying American products until Trump revoked his move.
“Don’t rely on their products,” he said, as the crowd including men, women and children responded by waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and shouting “boycott!”
The clerics also encouraged nations not follow the US in moving their embassies from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem and urged the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to discuss Trump’s declaration.
The chairman of the clerics council, Ma’ruf Amin, said “let’s fight together with the government and the world for the freedom of Palestine through political, diplomatic and economic ways.”
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has strongly condemned Trump’s move as a violation of UN resolutions.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he intends to open a Turkish embassy in Occupied East Jerusalem, days after leading calls at a summit of Muslim leaders for the world to recognise it as the capital of Palestine.
It was not clear how he would carry out the move, as Israel controls all of Occupied Jerusalem and falsely claims the city its indivisible capital.
Palestinians want the capital of a future promised state they seek to be in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally.
The Muslim nation summit was a response to US President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
His move broke with decades of US policy and international consensus that the city’s status must be left to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Foreign embassies in Israel, including Turkey’s, are located in Tel Aviv, reflecting Jerusalem’s unresolved status.
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council will consider a draft resolution that would insist any decisions on the status of Occupied Jerusalem have no legal effect and must be rescinded.
The one-page Egyptian-drafted text, which was circulated to the 15-member council on Saturday and seen by Reuters, does not specifically mention the United States or Trump.
Diplomats say it has broad support but will likely be vetoed by Washington.
The resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
While the draft is unlikely to be adopted, it would further isolate Trump over the Jerusalem issue.
The draft U.N. resolution “affirms that 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 in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
It calls upon all countries to refrain establishing diplomatic missions in Occupied Jerusalem.
The draft council resolution “demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.”
A UN Security Council resolution adopted in December last year “underlines that it will not recognise any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Occupied Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations.” That resolution was approved with 14 votes in favour and an abstention by former US President Barack Obama’s administration.
