The following lines are not the fruit of an overactive imagination or the result of typos. They are taken from a document signed Dec. 13 in Istanbul by leaders of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), among them Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The leaders expressed support for an “independent and sovereign Palestinian State on the borders of 4 June 1967,” and reaffirmed their “attachment to the just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution with east Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine … consistent with … the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative adopted by the Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference in 2005 as a strategic choice.” According to their resolution, US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel thus violates “the foundations of the peace process that stipulate that City of Al-Quds Al-Sharif as a final status issue …”
In addition to the protest against US President Donald Trump’s controversial Jerusalem declaration, the leaders decided to ratify the OIC support for the Arab Peace Initiative, which promises normalization of ties with Israel in return for a withdrawal to its 1967 borders. Along with a tirade against “colonialism, settlement, apartheid and the ethnic cleansing it has been practicing in the occupied Palestinian territory in 1967,” the communique of the Istanbul summit recognizes Israel within the borders that existed before it occupied the West Bank 50 years ago.