Fatah official: Israel turns Jerusalem into religious capital for world Jewry
Hatem Abd Al-Qader, Fatah official responsible for Jerusalem portfolio:
"The problem… is that Israel has moved from the point where it is strengthening Jerusalem as the political capital of the Hebrew entity, to strengthening Jerusalem as the religious capital for the Jewish people [throughout] the world. In other words, it is attempting to deflect the conflict from the political track to a religious track. Turning Jerusalem into the capital of the Jewish people means negating the other religions – in other words, rendering the other holy places ownerless, forcing upon the Muslims and the Christians in Jerusalem new facts on the ground, with the assumption that Jerusalem is a Jewish city. That is what Israel is trying to do in Jerusalem."
"The problem… is that Israel has moved from the point where it is strengthening Jerusalem as the political capital of the Hebrew entity, to strengthening Jerusalem as the religious capital for the Jewish people [throughout] the world. In other words, it is attempting to deflect the conflict from the political track to a religious track. Turning Jerusalem into the capital of the Jewish people means negating the other religions – in other words, rendering the other holy places ownerless, forcing upon the Muslims and the Christians in Jerusalem new facts on the ground, with the assumption that Jerusalem is a Jewish city. That is what Israel is trying to do in Jerusalem."