TRUMP IGNITES ANGER ACROSS MUSLIM WORLD
Fiery protests erupt as he recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite warnings the move would undermine peace efforts
JERUSALEM— Fresh anger poured in from across the Muslim world Wednesday as President Donald Trump said the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a move that Arab and European leaders have warned could spark violence and destroy any hopes of reviving the Mideast peace process.
Israel responded with satisfaction to the president’s announcement, in which Trump also said he was setting in motion the process of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv. In a show of appreciation, the Jerusalem municipality projected the American and Israeli flags onto the walls of the Old City, home to important Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.
In a White House address, Trump called his decision “overdue” and in America’s best interests. “This is nothing more or less than the recognition of reality,” he said.
“We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past,” the president said.
Yet even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s declaration as “courageous and just,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the “destruction of all the efforts to achieve peace.”
Jerusalem’s status is one of the most sensitive and inflammatory issues fuelling the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Israel claims the city in entirety as its capital; Palestinians want the eastern sector to be the seat of government for a future state.
Trump made no reference to signing a waiver that officials said he would sign delaying any move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
Establishing a Jerusalem embassy was a major campaign promise of Trump’s and one that officials said he had focused on in discussions with top advisers in recent weeks. The waiver means there will be no embassy move for at least another six months. Instead, Trump stressed that he directed the State Department begin the process of moving the embassy as required by U.S. law, however many years that might take. After his speech, he signed a proclamation to that effect.
Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is a powerful symbolic step. The U.S. 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. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been trying to restart a new peace process.
Ahead of the announcement, U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe had urged Trump to refrain from taking steps they fear could ignite unrest across the region.
UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres, speaking from New York after the address, said Jerusalem’s status was an issue to be decided through negotiations. “In this moment of great anxiety, I want to make it clear there is no alternative to the two-state solution,” he said, referring to a broad international consensus supporting side-by-side Israeli and Palestinian states.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed that Jerusalem’s status quo would be preserved to avoid adding new tension to a world “already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts.”
Leaders from Britain, France, Germany and Italy joined in the chorus of criticism for Trump’s decision. French President Emmanuel Macron called the U.S. move “regrettable.” British Prime Minister The- resa May said she intended to speak with Trump and express concerns.
Palestinians, already discouraged over what they describe as a consistently pro-Israel stance by the U.S., said Trump’s decision essentially killed any remaining peace hopes. Leaders called for three “days of rage” culminating after Friday prayers.
Although protests in the West Bank were muted Wednesday, in part because of the cold weather and rain, hundreds took to the streets in the Gaza Strip, chanting angry slogans against the U.S. and Israel, and burning the flags of both countries.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meeting in the Turkish capital with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, said the president’s stance would provide a boost for terrorist groups. The leaders plan to convene extraordinary meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in the coming days to discuss the region’s response to the U.S. moves.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, according to live footage from Turkey’s state-run TRT television. Erdogan threatened this week to cut ties with Israel if Trump went ahead, calling Jerusalem a “red line” for Muslims. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League’s secretary-general, said he was surprised that the U.S. administration would “get involved in an unjustified provocation of the feelings of 360 million Arabs and 1.5 billion Muslims to please Israel.”
The status of Israel is one of the few issues that unites leaders in a part of the world riven by war and sectarian divides. Archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are engaged in deadly proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria, have offered some of the harshest commentary about Trump’s plan in recent days.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a gathering of Iranian officials Wednesday that “without a doubt, the Islamic world will resist this conspiracy . . . and beloved Palestine will finally be freed,” the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.
Palestinians, already discouraged over what they describe as a consistently pro-Israel stance by the U.S., said Trump’s decision essentially killed any remaining peace hopes. Leaders called for three “days of rage” after Friday prayers.
Although protests in the West Bank were muted Wednesday, in part because of the cold weather and rain, hundreds took to the streets in the Gaza Strip, chanting angry slogans against the U.S. and Israel, and burning the flags of both countries.
“Trump has just declared the end of the two-state solution,” said Tahrir Aloumor, 36, who joined a demonstration in the Jabaliya refugee camp. “Shame on you, Trump.”
The Trump administration has opted against an earlier plan of converting the existing U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem to an embassy, said a nongovernmental expert on the Mideast. Instead, it’s looking to construct an entirely new facility over the long term and a U.S. team is examining prospective sites in Jerusalem, said the individual.