Speaking at the closing session of the sixth annual Al Quds International Forum on Monday, Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi urged HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to intervene between the Palestinian factions so that they can form a unity government.
Qatar had helped achieve reconciliation in Lebanon and was now working to solve Sudan’s Darfur conflict, Qaradawi said. He hoped that it would use its “good relationship with the two parties” to broker a peace deal between the Palestinians as well.
The deputy chairman of Al Quds International Institution and former Iranian interior minister Mohamed Ali Mohatashemi also urged Qatar to bring the Palestinian factions together in Doha, saying that its diplomacy had “proved successful in resolving differences between the Palestinians.”
Participants at the forum issued a statement appealing to Arab and Muslim countries to break the “unfair blockade” imposed on Gaza and help bridge the rift between the Palestinian factions.
The three-day meeting, attended by some 400 delegates representing various political and religious affiliations, looked into ways to offset the Israeli attempts to Judaise Jerusalem and change its demographic structure through a policy of deportations.
“We call on the Arab countries and peoples to break the unfair siege imposed on Gaza and help Palestinians to overcome their differences and end their current divisions,” the statement said.
They condemned the ongoing excavations under the Al Aqsa mosque as well as “Israel’s direct interference with the movement of worshippers at the mosque.”
They also called for halting all types of normalisation of relations with Israel and stressed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
“Palestinians’ right of return should be non-negotiable and all prisoners in the jails of the Zionist occupation should be freed,” the statement said.
They called on parliaments of Arab and Muslim countries to form committees tasked with “addressing the dangers threatening the city including the Israeli attempts to change its identity.”
While hailing the selection of Jerusalem as the ‘Capital of Arab Culture in 2009’, the statement urged Arab countries to host events recognising the heritage of the city in all Arab capitals.
They also stressed that the conflict over Jerusalem had reached a “critical stage of its history”.
“It is what is going on now and what will take place in the few years to come which will decide the result of the conflict over the destiny of Jerusalem.”
