VIENNA, May 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Arab League and Austrian Muslims have protested plans to name a square in the capital Vienna after Theodor Herzl, one of the founders of Zionism.

The head of the Arab League’s mission in Austria Hassan Khorshed said it was "inappropriate" for the Vienna city council officials to name the square after Herzl, reported the BBC News Online Thursday, May 6.

He warned that the move would "remind Arabs and Muslims of the sad memory of the expulsion of Palestinians from their fatherland".

The proposal would "do a disservice to peace and good relations between Austria and the Arab and Muslim world," cautioned the Arab diplomat.

In a letter, dated April 29, sent to Mayor Michael Haeupl, Khorshed said the plan contrasted with "the clever politics that has protected Austria up until today from conflicts and problems".

Arab League spokesman Ali Maan conceded that "we can do nothing" beyond urging the Austrian capital to reconsider.

The proposal is expected to be put to a vote this week in the council, which is dominated by Social Democratic allies of Haeupl, reported the Guardian on Tuesday, May 4.

Most other parties in the council also back the proposal, the British daily added.

Unhappy

In a related development, members of Vienna's 300,000-strong Muslim community vocalized dissatisfaction with the measure.

Carna Amina Baghajati, a community leader, suggested a square be named instead after Mohammad Asad, the Austrian-born Jew who converted to Islam and became an honored 19th century Muslim scholar, said the Guardian.

Officials with Vienna's Jewish community declined to comment about the Arab protests.

The Israeli Embassy did not return calls seeking reaction, said the British daily.

The move came after relations between Austria and Israel witnessed a thaw after Israel announced in July 2003 the return of its ambassador to Vienna for the first time since it broke ties with Austria when a far-right party came to power.

Relations between the two countries have also warmed following Austria's offer of compensation for "Holocaust" survivors and their descendants.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Herzl, a Hungarian-born Jew who died in 1904, is founder of the political form of Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland on territories seized from the Palestinians.

He founded the World Zionist Organization at the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897.

Its aim was to find a "home for the Jewish people in Palestine ".

In 1949, after the foundation of Israel, his remains were exhumed from a Vienna cemetery and reburied in now-occupied west Jerusalem on a hill that now bears his name.

Israel’s creation has forced the departure of several millions of Palestinians, now mostly living in neighboring countries as refugees after Israel denied them return to homeland.

It also triggered a long-standing conflict between Israel and Arabs, particularly the Palestinians, seeking an end to the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state.