President Donald Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will be welcomed by Israel, but it could cause violence in the region, derail a developing U.S. Mideast peace plan before it even starts and infuriate key allies in the Arab world and in the West, Associated Press reports.
Jerusalem is a very sensitive issue because of several reasons. Israel claims all of the city as its capital, and the Palestinians claim the eastern part of the city, captured by Israel in 1967. Those claims are the main reasons for the conflict between them that lasts for decades. Even though Israel controls the city, its annexation of the east part is not internationally recognized.
Trump promised to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his presidential campaign last year. American law says that the president must sign a waiver every six months that leaves the embassy in Tel Aviv. Trump renewed the waiver in June and this week another six month deadline passed without Trump renewing it. Allegedly, he will sign it, but will tell the State Department to begin the process of moving the Embassy. That process could last three or four years.
According to Associated Press, there will be very little change on the ground because the office of the prime minister of Israel, as well as the parliament, Supreme Court and Foreign Ministry are already in Jerusalem and world leaders go there when they are supposed to meet Israeli officials. Trump’s move carries symbolic meaning by essentially imposing a solution for one of the core issues in the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians warned that changing the status of Jerusalem would mean the end of the peace efforts and announced protests which could erupt into violence. Israeli security officials said that they were monitoring the situation and were prepared for all scenarios.
In the meantime, Palestinians’ chief representative to Britain Manuel Hassassian said that with his move, Trump would effectively be making a declaration of war.
“If he says what he is intending to say about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, it means a kiss of death to the two state solution. He is declaring war in the Middle East, he is declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims (and) hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel,” Hassassian said.
Last night, Palestinian Christians burned pictures of Trump in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, British Independent informed.
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