Al Quds or Jerusalem is a city that captivates you with its beauteous majesty, splendour, and heritage. It has a special place in the hearts of Muslims; its land is holy, and blessed in texts of the Holy Quran. In it lies the Al Aqsa Mosque, the second mosque ever built by man on earth to worship God, and towards which Muslims initially turned for prayers,. The Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) was miraculously transported there from the Sacred mosque in Mecca; and it is the land where many of God’s prophets lived and were buried.
The city of Jerusalem holds great significance in Israeli minds, for both religious and historical reasons. Half a century before the declaration on the establishment of “Israel”, Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, said that: “If we get the city of Jerusalem, and I am still alive and it is within my power to do something, I would remove from it everything not sacred to the Jews, and burn all traces of the past centuries.” Half a century after Israel seized the entire city of Jerusalem in 1967, Israeli leaders of today do not think any differently from their predecessors. At the reception of US President Donald Trump during his first trip to Israel after taking office, Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, addressed Trump saying: “We are proud to welcome you to Jerusalem at a time when we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem Day. We are pleased that our greatest ally recognizes the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. Jerusalem is the beating heart of the Jewish people, as it has been for three thousand years.”
At the height of the anticipation by all concerned of was to be the deal of the century and adopted by the Trump administration from their predecessors, which many relied on to end the Arab-Israeli conflict, the President instead announced his decision to fulfil the promise he made during his campaign days, by bringing into force the JERUSALEM EMBASSY ACT OF 1995 recognizing Jerusalem, both East and West, as the undivided capital of Israel; which also mandates the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv, the capital of “Israel”, to Jerusalem.
