Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
This will lead to a new intifada... and could cost many people their lives
IN recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Donald Trump has made the wrong call. And it’s no small mistake.
I believe this will lead to another intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule – and there have already been a number in the last 30 years or so. His decision, at worst, could cost many lives.
Trump says it will help the peace process. I do not understand that – it’s bonkers.
There is barely a peace process in existence. Trump’s move has not only derailed what existed, it is a nail into an already-sealed coffin.
As I see it – which is very different from how many other Jewish people do – the whole Zionist idea has been one of slow ethnic cleansing of the non-jewish population from the Occupied Territories, coupled with arbitrary cruelty.
FACTIONS
The Palestinians are being pushed out. People cannot go to their fields, their often centuries-old olive trees are dug up. There are roads for Israeli settlers only. But the settlements are illegal under international law, you can’t have permanent settlements in occupied territory. Yet this is happening and Israel is getting away scot free.
This is a step further in that direction, and will only marginalise Palestinians even more. Equally badly, it will incite the wrath of Palestinian allies around the world, around the Middle East. That’s another hornets’ nest because there are so many Palestinian factions supported by Saudi Arabia, Iran and so on.
The one glimmer of hope is Trump hasn’t termed Jerusalem an “undivided capital of Israel”. He hasn’t excluded east Jerusalem as being a capital of Palestine. He hasn’t spelled that out either. He has been silent.
But the Israelis aren’t going to just offer up east Jerusalem. They are deliberately shifting the population there of non-jews to Jewish. This will open the floodgates to more Israeli settlements. The Palestinians aren’t just going to roll over and accept this.
As for a solution, two states would be an admission of defeat, saying various peoples cannot get on with each other. One state in practice means Israeli domination, which I would not want either.
I understand this is idealistic, but the answer is people getting on together, and then the question of how many states becomes unimportant.