Arab League Creates Billion-Dollar Fund to Promote Jerusalem’s Arabic Image

The Arab League, meeting in Qatar, has resolved to set up a $1 billion fund to promote the Arab character of east Jerusalem. The fund, which will be managed by Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank, will “finance projects and programs that would maintain the Arab and Islamic character of the city and reinforce the steadfastness of its people.”  Speaking at the Doha session, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas repeated his frequent charge that Israel “is working in a systematic and hurried way to ‘Juda-ize’ east Jerusalem, change its features and uproot its Palestinian inhabitants, attacking the  Al-Aqsa mosque and its Muslim and Christian holy sites,” allegations Israel vehemently dismisses. Nevertheless, the establishment of the fund ratchets-up the intensity of the battle for the sovereignty of Jerusalem, arguably the thorniest issue on the table for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.