(The AEGIS Alliance) – U.S. President Donald J. Trump informed Jordanian Palestinian officials about an upcoming announcement, expected by Wednesday, will see the U.S. recognize formally that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, immediately effective. The embassy would move to Jerusalem, though likely this will take up to six months to complete.
Israel had declared Jerusalem to be its capital during the year 1980, but since it includes substantial amounts of territory being occupied illegally, this relocation isn’t generally recognized, with foreign embassies located within Tel Aviv.
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Palestine, reportedly sent messages to European Union officials, the Jordanian king, the Pope, and even Russia attempting to get someone to communicate the United States out of this significant move. Announced by The Palestinian Authority ‘three days of rage’ protests set to begin on Wednesday.
The timing of this couldn’t get any worse, amid reports the Saudi Arabian and U.S. governments are intending to urge a new deal for peace that is overwhelmingly biased and favors Israel, and leaving the Palestinians with only ‘limited sovereignty’ and doesn’t grant them a state.
There’s been a good amount of speculation that a move by the U.S. to recognize Jerusalem will only lead to a number of such international recognition’s. However, this does not necessarily seem to be the case, as the foreign minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, criticized the move by the U.S. as ‘counterproductive’, and notes it came with no consultation with the European Union.
Indeed, this may have risks of a European Union push-back, with Gabriel stating it could force Germany to ‘spell out’ its own limits and position. The European Union has been much more critical for some time of the Israeli occupation than the United States has, and getting cut out of this scheme could make them even more so.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
