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Muslim And Arab Americans Urge Bush Not To Move Embassy To Jerusalem
by Dina Rashed
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IslamOnline) - Muslim and Arab Americans sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him to refrain from moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and called on him to take a fair stance during the ongoing talks in the Middle East in order to reach a lasting peace for all parties involved.
The letter was sent by the American Committee on Jerusalem (ACJ), a coalition of major Arab-American organizations working to find a solution to the status of the city holy to all three monotheistic religions.
"The issue of Jerusalem remains at the core of the lingering differences between Israel and the Palestinians…Such a move by the United States totally dismisses the feelings, sentiments, and deep attachments of the Arab people, the Muslim peoples and the Christian religious communities - all of whom have a stake in the future of the city," wrote Ziad Asali, ACJ chairman, in the letter.
The letter comes as Muslim and Arab Americans are racing to counter pressure the Israeli lobby is exerting on the President, who repeatedly promised during the election campaign to move the American embassy to Jerusalem.
Reports say that on his first day in office at the White House, January 22nd, Bush was greeted by a public challenge issued by Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, to uphold his pledge.
Meanwhile, Jewish Democrats also announced they had formed a new watchdog campaign - called "Embassy Watch" - to track the transformation of Bush's rhetoric into reality.
As a result, the president has instructed his aides to explore the issue, Jerusalem Reports reported.
The Palestinian side has argued, based on documented research, that even the piece of land designated to be the new location for the embassy is contested as a stolen property.
A well-researched project sponsored by the ACJ found that the plot of land is a combination of Palestinian private property and Waqf (Muslim religious endowment) property, for which the British government rented till British forces left Palestine in May 1948.
Israeli forces later expropriated the land, along with other Palestinian plots whose owners were forced to flee their homes and properties during the time.
Walid Khalidi, a prominent Arab American scholar on Middle East affairs headed a documented six-year research project that looked into the ownership of the site through an elaborate effort conducted in Jerusalem, New York and London.
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