Netanyahu tells Palestinians to ‘face up to reality’ over Jerusalem
Israeli PM remains defiant in Paris as protests sweep Muslim countries over President Trump’s decision
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, the Israeli prime minister, defied an international backlash against Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, telling President Emmanuel Macron in Paris yesterday that the Palestinians must face “reality”.
Mr Macron maintained his opposition to the American president’s decision, describing it as “a threat to Israel’s security”. At a joint press conference, Mr Netanyahu insisted that Jerusalem had been Israel’s capital for 3,000 years and had “never been the capital of any other people”.
He added: “You can read it in a very fine book – it’s called the Bible … The sooner the Palestinians come to grips with this reality, the sooner we will move towards peace.”
But Mr Macron urged Mr Netanyahu to “give peace a chance” by making “courageous gestures” to the Palestinians, including the freezing of settlement building on the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu’s first foreign trip since Mr Trump’s announcement was overshadowed by protests in the Muslim world and criticism in Europe.
As the two leaders held talks at the Elysée Palace, protesters waving Palestinian flags clashed with riot police outside the US embassy in Beirut. Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags, some hurled stones and police fired tear gas and water cannons to stop them reaching the embassy.
Hizbollah, the extremist Lebanese Shiite group, has condemned the US decision on Jerusalem, backing calls for a new Palestinian uprising against Israel. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, called for a protest in the Hizbollah-controlled suburbs of Beirut today.
Further protests took place yesterday in Cairo and the Moroccan capital Rabat, and in the Palestinian territories. In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the American embassy.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told a rally in Istanbul that he would never abandon Jerusalem to a state that “kills children”.
Describing Jerusalem as a “red line” issue for Muslims, he warned that Turkey may again sever diplomatic relations with Israel. Ties were restored last year after a six-year break following the killings of nine pro-palestinian Turkish activists.
Mr Netanyahu said: “I’m not used to receiving lectures about morality from a leader who bombs Kurdish villages in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, helps Iran go around international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people.”
He said a terrorist attack hours earlier at Jerusalem’s main bus station, in which a security guard was stabbed in the chest, was not a reaction to Mr Trump’s move, but simply motivated by “hatred of Israel”.
The Israeli security forces blew up a tunnel from Gaza, which they said was being dug for militants to launch attacks. It was the second tunnel destroyed in six weeks.
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister, called for a boycott of businesses owned by Arab citizens of Israel who took part in violent protests against President Trump’s decision.
His comment came after hundreds of Israeli Arabs, some wearing masks, hurled stones at buses and police vehicles in Wadi Ara, a mainly Arab area in Israel, on Saturday. Three people were wounded.
An Israeli air strike launched in response to rockets fired from Gaza killed two Hamas fighters on Saturday.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, defended the Jerusalem decision on CNN.
“I strongly believe this going to move the ball forward for the peace process,” she said.
‘Jerusalem has never been the capital of any other people… you can read it in the Bible’