Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abu Al Gaith put it best when he said that US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital “amounted to the legalisation of occupation”. Despite the fact that there had been prior warning, Trump’s move, when it came, still sent shockwaves around the region and the world. It simply killed the ‘peace process’.
The best thing to come out of the emergency meeting held by Arab foreign ministers in Cairo in the early hours yesterday was the call to the international community to recognise the state of Palestine. It is about time.
The fact that the world’s last colonial occupation has lasted so long, and only seems to be getting more entrenched with every passing year, is a blot on the conscience of the international community. The regime in Tel Aviv has, quite literally, got away with theft and murder, with limitless support from the world’s only superpower.
Trump’s move has been almost universally criticised; there is furore even in the US diplomatic community. How the president’s move will help in attaining peace between the two sides is baffling. While all past US administrations have taken a blindingly obvious pro-Israel line in the ‘peace process’, what is different this time is that by blatantly declaring occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the US has left the Palestinians with really nothing to talk about in a ‘peace process’ sponsored by Washington itself. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s fury is understandable, given that he had believed Washington’s promises on the ‘peace process’ even at a time when it seemed to be going nowhere. His refusal to meet US Vice-President Mike Pence is a reflection of the betrayal Abbas feels.
Trump’s move flies in the face of his country’s policy and UN resolutions, both of which have taken the line that the final status of occupied Jerusalem should be agreed through dialogue between the two parties.
From the point of view of the broader Middle East, Trump’s actions have impacted America’s allies, and given a boost to extremists who have been suffering significant blows across the region. As His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, said, the US move could “throw a lifeline to terrorist and armed groups, which have begun to lose ground in the region”.
