Pence to face difficult Mideast visit over Jerusalem move

Bloomberg

Neither the Palestinian Authority president nor the head of the Coptic Church in Egypt plan to meet with US Vice President Mike Pence when he visits the Middle East later this month, to protest the US declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
The rejections emerged as the Anadolu Agency said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to work together to persuade the US to change its stance on Jerusalem. Palestine
Liberation Organization execu-
tive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said the United Nations Security Council should now move to “bring the US to compliance.”
Protests against the US move extended for a third day in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Gaza Health Ministry said four Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in clashes with Israeli soldiers or by Israeli air strikes, launched in response to rocket fire on southern Israeli towns.
Trump’s decision, presented as being in “the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” has been denounced across the Arab world. Members of the Security Council condemned the move as contradicting international law and prejudging the outcome of negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the decision “courageous” and “just.”
TWO-STATE SOLUTION
Palestinians claim the eastern sector of Jerusalem, with shrines sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians, as the capital of a future state. Israel’s current government sees the area as part of the nation’s eternal capital. Jerusalem’s status must worked out in peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said in Cairo, where he added that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wasn’t planning to meet Pence and stressed that the peace process needed a new mediator.
Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church in Egypt, also won’t meet Pence because the US administration’s decision fails to take “into consideration the feelings of millions of people,” the church said on its Facebook page.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said that the Trump administration supports a two-state solution if agreed to by both parties, and added that an Israeli- Palestinian peace agreement is within reach. That did little to pacify Muslims. The Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip and has called for a new uprising, sent out a leaflet urging Palestinians to continue to confront Israeli forces to protest the US move. The IS in Gaza and other Palestinian factions in the West Bank issued similar calls.
The West Bank groups instructed Palestinian churches to ring their bells as a show of unity, and called for demonstrations in front of US government buildings in West Bank on Monday. Palestinians should block roads and confront Jewish settlers on Friday, they said. In Leba-non, army chief General Joseph Aoun instructed military to be “on alert and prepared to react to possible repercussions of crisis.” He also said troops on the country’s southern border with Israel should be prepared “to confront any Israeli aggression or any breach of security.”

Indonesians take to streets
JAKARTA / Reuters

Thousands protested outside the US Embassy in the Indonesian capital on Sunday against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, many waving banners saying “Palestine is in our hearts”.
Leaders in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, have joined a global chorus of condemnation of Trump’s announcement, including Western allies who say it is a blow to peace efforts and risks sparking more violence.
Thousands of protesters in Muslim-majority countries in Asia have rallied in recent days to condemn the US move. Israel maintains that all of Jerusalem is its capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and say Trump’s move has left them completely sidelined.
Palestinian people were among the first to recognise
Indonesia’s independence in 1945, Sohibul Iman, president of the controversial extremist opposition Prosperous Justice Party which organised the rally, told protesters.
Indonesia should be more proactive in “urging the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states and U.N. Security Council and the international community to respond immediately with more decisive and concrete political and diplomatic actions in saving the Palestinians from the Israeli occupation and its collaborator, the United States of America,” Iman said.