Palestinian protesters burn pictures of President Trump at the manger square in Bethlehem on December 5, 2017. President Trump told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call that he intends to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Abbas’s office said. (Photo: MUSA AL SHAER / AFP / Getty Images)
Critics warned of violent consequences and immediately condemned President Donald Trump on Tuesday after it was reported he told regional leaders the US will recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel and relocate the US Embassy in the coming months.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that “Trump has informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he intends to move the US Embassy,” and Jordan told reporters Trump gave King Abdullah II a similar notice. After the call, “Abbas appealed to the Pope and the Russian, French, and Jordanian leaders to intervene,” according to The Independent.
During a Tuesday afternoon press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Trump will make the announcement official on Wednesday in a prepared speech. And while Sanders acknowledged that the threat of violence in reaction to the move was considered as part of the president’s decision-making process, she said that ultimately Trump is “pretty solid in his thinking.” The president is expected to sign a six-month waiver for the Embassy to remain in Tel Aviv until the logistical details of a relocation can be sorted out.
While Israel claimed Jerusalem as its capitol in the late 1960s, Palestinians claim East Jerusalem — which is home to several holy sites for Christians, Jews, and Muslims — as their own. Critics of the decision worry it will further inflame decades-long tensions, tighten the grip of Israel’s stranglehold on the Occupied Territories, and further embolden the right-wing Likkud government.
“For 70 years, the US has given Israel tacit approval to steal Palestinian land, build illegal Jewish settlements, and deny Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere their rights,” said Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson. “Trump’s decision takes these ongoing policies to the next level and is reckless, irresponsible, and endangers the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.”
“Jerusalem is a symbol of holiness and hope for many people of many religions the world over,” said Rabbi Alissa Wise, the deputy director of JVP. “We want there to be a shared and peaceful Jerusalem.”
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the relocation would cross a “red line” for Muslims, Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah cautioned against using such language, tweeting:
I get that Trump moving US Embassy to Jerusalem is Bad. But when you call it a “red line,” it implies all Israel’s other crimes were fine.
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) December 5, 2017
Yousef Munayyer, executive director of US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, called the decision “both morally wrong and politically dangerous.”
“Not only is Donald Trump deliberately insulting the Palestinian people, but also Arabs and Muslims around the world. In doing so, he is relinquishing what little credibility the United States had left in a region that is already rife with conflict and division,” Munayyer said. “The United States has attempted to shepherd the so-called ‘peace process’ on the basis that it can play the role of mediator but by clearly adopting an Israeli position as its own, it makes clear it is not even pretending anymore.”
The United Nations told the AP Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is against any action with regard to Jerusalem that could undermine a two-state solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying Tuesday that “we’ve always regarded Jerusalem as a final status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations by the two parties based on relevant Security Council resolutions.”
Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the PLO Executive Committee and a former chief Palestinian negotiator, told Haaretz that the decision will make the United States unfit to mediate future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Erekat said the move “directly encourages the colonialist occupation whose purpose is to trigger wars and to sow an ethnic and religious conflict, in a manner that does not befit the national interests of the American people.”
He warned that such a decision “will contribute to further destabilization of the region and will discourage many of those who still believe that a peaceful solution is achievable to end over 50 years of Israeli occupation, 70 years of exile, and decades of systematic violations of Palestinian national and human rights.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 182 new monthly donors in the next 24 hours.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy