This is a day when the United States and the administration of President Donald Trump should hang its head in shame at its decision to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem. It is a day when those Zionists who give their donations and deeds to prop up and promote the illegal and immoral regime of Israel should be castigated for holding sway in the corridors of Washington. And it is a day when the pantheon of nations who stand firm and resolute with the Palestinian cause should reaffirm and double down on their efforts to ensure that the Palestinian cause and the path of peace will endure over this most grievous and ill-conceived decision.
In making a purely political move to appease his friends on the Manhattan party circuit, Trump has upended six decades of conventional thinking and diplomatic protocols. What’s more, he has wilfully and deliberately ripped up long-standing policy and resolutions of the United Nations, shredding the very agreements that were so carefully honed by a raft of his predecessors and the international community at large.
In this callous and blinkered act, Trump has once again shown that he has no regard for those international treaties or agreements, acting in the moment, acting for the few, and acting merely to serve his narrow political interests. Indeed, nations have stood up to be counted, and only Guatemala, Paraguay and Romania have indicated that they will follow suit — a toothless and tame coalition of the coalesced.
Moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem will not change for one minute the reality on the ground. Israel is a nation that brutalises the Palestinian majority, and is all too ready to use its forces of illegal occupation to gun down protesters at will, as the events these past Fridays at the crossing in the Gaza Strip so sadly shows.
Ignoring the city’s heritage
This is an event that flies in the very face of the international and multi-religious traditions and history of the occupied city itself. It is a deliberate and wanton decision to erase Palestinian heritage and claims to the ancient city, and it is a dangerous thumb in the eye to those who adhere to the Christian faiths of the Roman and Orthodox churches. The tomes of history note that the city of Jerusalem is an Arab capital, it is one that is shared with Christians, and it is one now, thanks to the lack of appreciation of history and Trump’s disregard of contemporary convention, that the Jews wrongly claim as their capital. Simply put, it is not — nor ever will be.
This short-sighted dictum merely serves and suits the needs of a morally and almost certainly corrupt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, beholden to a rabble of right-wing rabbis and desperate for any political victory. And while there is little chance of this misdeed being reversed in the next 30 months, it will not quell nor quieten the just demand of the Palestinian people and the broad international community for an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Moving the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem serves the same desperate craving as giving heroin to a junkie — it offers an immediate high, but the long-term and damaging habits of Israel will eventually be overcome. The change of address is a reward for Netanyahu’s long-standing intransigence, opposition and undermining of any and every opportunity to resolve the Palestinian question through negotiation and dialogue. Throughout, he has responded with bullets and bombs, unleashing his Washington-funded and supplied military on a largely unarmed civilian population. But Netanyahu is not alone and since the very first days of the Nakba seven decades ago, Israel has steadfastly refused to make any meaningful concession to find lasting peace.
Making up its own rules
Throughout these seven decades, Israel has continually thumbed its nose at the international community and the United Nations, ignoring the rule of international law, making up its own rules on the ground to imprison, torture and intimidate Palestinians and seizing lands to build colonies in the face of international condemnation. Indeed, only for Washington’s veto, Israel would be rightfully ostracised, penalised and criminalised. This embassy episode merely underscores the attempts of both the US administration and Israel, acting hand in hand, to rid the historic city of its Arab presence. It is a move that effectively sanctions their final solution in eliminating Palestinians from their occupied city.
But there is a reality that Trump has forgotten — one that will last long after he has gone. Jerusalem’s status is non-negotiable. It can neither be erased, ignored nor over-ridden in the narrow pursuit of political gratification. More than anything, it is a spur now for the truly righteous nations of the world to find a way forward in a lasting Palestinian peace deal.
