W

hile the global Muslim community has come together to reject the United States’ unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, diplomats involved want to make sure the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does not get transformed into a religious quagmire.

Speaking during a panel discussion hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) in the Mayapada Tower on Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta on Friday, envoys from Jordan and Palestine said they hope the world can go beyond the religious sentiments attached to the status of Jerusalem and see the Palestinian struggle as a humanitarian one.

“We wanted to fulfill the last thing of the Bandung Principles: to end occupation and colonization,” Jordanian Ambassador to Indonesia Walid Al Hadid told a packed audience, referring to the outcome document of the Asia-Africa Conference.

Indonesia was one of the sponsors of the 1955 conference in Bandung, West Java, that helped pave the way for the national awakening and independence of countries around the world with the so-called Bandung Spirit.

Palestine is one of the few countries widely recognized as being under occupation today.

“I would like to see [the Jerusalem issue as] a human issue. The struggle of the Palestinians, their suffering and the occupation [by Israel] is all injustice,” Al Hadid said.

US President Donald Trump’s decision triggered widespread anger and protests across the Muslim world. Jerusalem is considered holy by Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is home to Islam’s third holiest site,
Masjid Al Aqsa.

However, Ambassador Al Hadid warned of the danger of placing the Jerusalem issue squarely within the context of religion, as that would play directly into the whims of violent extremists and radicals.

“Unfortunately, the decision by Mr. Trump is undermining the moderates, undermining the people who believe in peace and undermining the legal aspect of United Nations resolutions to have a two-state solution,” he said.

The Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, currently ruled by King Abdullah II, is by tradition the custodian of the Muslim and Christian shrines in Jerusalem.

Al Hadid’s call comes as the Islamic State (IS) threatens attacks on US soil in retaliation for Trump’s decision, one of the group’s social media accounts reported on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church in Egypt, refused to meet US Vice President Mike Pence in an upcoming visit because he considered Washington’s decision to have failed to take “into consideration the feelings of millions of people,” the church said on its Facebook page, as quoted by Bloomberg.

In the Vatican, Roman Catholic Pope Francis called for “wisdom and prudence” on Sunday, asking world leaders “to avert a new spiral of violence.”

The call for Muslims not to frame the Jerusalem issue as a religious one comes ahead of another rally in Jakarta planned for Sunday that some estimate could attract millions of Indonesian Muslims.

Last week, some 5,000 Indonesians protested in solidarity with the Palestinians, gathering outside the US Embassy in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

“It is not about Islam, but world justice and helping Palestine decolonize from the occupation of Israel,” said Dino Patti Djalal, FPCI founder and former Indonesian ambassador to the US, on Friday.

Palestine’s appointed envoy to Indonesia, Zuhair Al Shun, who was also on the panel, said the US decision had prompted the Palestinian authority to renew its efforts to gain full membership of the UN.

According to him, 128 UN member states have already recognized the state of Palestine, with about 50 more to go.

“The Palestinian authority had decided to go to the UN to attain full membership,” Al Shun said on Friday.