Trump’s radical declaration  

The entire world is still raging over what many term “foreign policy crisis of the century” after United States President Donald Trump announced last Wednesday that the US now recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite fierce opposition.

Last Friday, the six-month waiver that President Trump issued pursuant to the Jerusalem Embassy Act earlier this year expired, thereby compelling certain funding restrictions that are designed to force the US to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although the US President had been indicating his intent to extend the waiver for another six months in order to “give his peace plan a shot”.

Jerusalem includes the holiest ground in Judaism. It is also home to Islam’s third-holiest shrine and major Christian sites, and any perceived harm to Muslim claims to the city has triggered protests in the past, in the Holy Land and beyond.

The US has never endorsed the Jewish state’s claim of sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem and has seen the city’s future as indelibly linked to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace agreement.

The new move which upends decades of US policy was questioned by even America’s closest allies in Europe who did not hide the fact that they were still trying to understand Trump’s rationale for the radical departure from past US positions.

The announcement is a sharp break from past Democratic and Republican administrations, which, despite their own campaign promises and pressure from Congress, have resisted moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem for fear doing so could alienate Arab allies, trigger protests in the Middle East, and damage the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, among other outcomes.

While successive US presidential administrations have expressed strong reservations about relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Congress has not. To the contrary, it has repeatedly adopted bipartisan resolutions expressing its support for such a move, often with overwhelming support. At times, it has also enacted legislation requiring the executive branch to take steps that would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Pope Francis, the United Nations, the European Union and others have criticized President Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

The global leaders, in separate statements, criticized the Trump administration’s decision, describing it as a dangerous disruption that contravenes several UN resolutions and could inflame one of the world’s thorniest conflicts. They all expressed sadness that the announcement would provoke new tensions in the Holy City, which is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

“Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,” said António Guterres, who read a statement outside the Security Council chambers at UN Headquarters in New York.

“I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in recent days,” Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican.

“And at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations. Jerusalem is a unique city sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace,” the Pope said.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia, one of several Arab leaders who spoke to Trump last week before the announcement, warned the US President that declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “would constitute a flagrant provocation to all Muslims, all over the world”.

For decades, Washington, like most of the rest of the international community, held back from recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, arguing that its status should be determined as part of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. No other country has its embassy there.

The Trump administration argues that the peace process has become moribund, and outdated policies need to be jettisoned for the sides in the conflict to make progress.

In Cairo, capital of Egypt, a US ally which has a peace treaty with Israel, hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Al-Azhar mosque and outside in its courtyard chanted “Jerusalem is Arab! O Trump, you madman, the Arab people are everywhere!”

Ahead of Trump’s White House speech, Arab and Muslim leaders spoke about the potential for violence. In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian protesters burned American and Israeli flags. They also waved Palestinian flags and banners proclaiming Jerusalem as their “eternal capital”, language that Israelis similarly use.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned Trump specifically on any embassy move. British Prime Minister Theresa May said she planned to call Trump to discuss her country’s support for a two-state solution.

But there are critics who, however, contend that these policy concerns are at best exaggerated and only serve to deprive Israel of the right to choose its own capital. Trump favoured the latter view during his presidential campaign, repeatedly promising to relocate the embassy and appointing an advocate for such a move as US ambassador to Israel.

What is today known as the Jerusalem Embassy Act is a 1995 public law of the US, passed by the 104th Congress on October 23, 1995. It was passed for the purposes of initiating and funding the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The US policy position has its origins in the early 20th century. Following World War I, the city of Jerusalem was placed under British control as part of the Mandate of Palestine, alongside the territory of modern-day Israel and Jordan as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Following British indications of its intent to withdraw in 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a plan to partition the mandatory territory into separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem as a ‘corpus separatum’ under UN administration.

Amid increasing violence, however, this plan was never implemented. Instead, at the end of the British mandate in May 1948, Jewish leaders cited the UN partition plan in declaring the establishment of the state of Israel.

Neighbouring Arab states subsequently invaded, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. This war eventually resulted in an armistice line that divided Jerusalem in half, with Israeli forces in control of the western half and Jordanian forces in control of the eastern half. The latter included Jerusalem’s ancient Old City, which contains sites of immense religious importance to members of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths.

For its part, Israel contends that its sovereignty extends over all of Jerusalem, which it identifies as its capital. Both the Palestinian authority and many Arab states, meanwhile, maintain that all of Jerusalem should be subject to permanent status negotiations and that East Jerusalem should be the capital of any future Palestinian state.

America’s consulate in Jerusalem has since ordered US personnel and their families to avoid visiting Jerusalem’s Old City or the West Bank, and urged American citizens in general to avoid places with increased police or military presence.

Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State, on Wednesday insisted that the Trump administration sees “a very good opportunity” to achieve Middle East peace.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Tillerson urged people to “listen carefully” to Trump’s speech, and said the president is “very committed” to an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

 

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE