{"id":914,"date":"2018-01-09T17:21:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnesspoliticsjournal.wordpress.com\/?p=914"},"modified":"2020-02-06T13:28:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T13:28:04","slug":"trump-jerusalem-and-the-un-the-story-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=914","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Jerusalem and the UN: the story so far"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 6 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

What happened?<\/u><\/p>\n

The United States was left isolated on December 21st after a majority of UN member nations voted for a resolution<\/a> opposing President Trump\u2019s decision to move the United States embassy<\/a> in Israel to Jerusalem. The move, which also recognised Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital, was met with widespread condemnation and breaks with 70 years of diplomatic precedent in which the US has remained neutral on the city\u2019s status.<\/p>\n

The move breaks with 70 years of diplomatic precedent<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The historically unstable region has become more so as Palestinian activists declared a \u2018day of rage\u2019 in response to the announcement. Protests broke out in the West Bank and in neighbouring Arab countries, with rocket fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel stoking further tensions.<\/p>\n

Why is it significant?<\/u><\/p>\n

The 1948 war resulted in the division of Jerusalem, with the East going to the Palestinians and the West to Israel \u2013 both claim the city as their capital. The occupation of East Jerusalem by Israel since 1967 has meant that the country controls the area already, but Trump\u2019s decision has effectively endorsed this, going against the global status quo.<\/p>\n

The US President portrayed this as a \u201clong overdue\u201d step to take the issue of Jerusalem off the table as a contentious factor in peace negotiations, hoping to speed them up. Experts, however, have warned that this will create more obstacles to<\/a>, if not halt, the peace process entirely.<\/p>\n

In the past, the US has used their neutrality on the issue of Jerusalem to incentivise Palestinian participation in peace talks, but this leverage is now gone. The trust of Palestinians will likely be extremely difficult to regain, as they have already made a number of major concessions in the path towards a peace deal.<\/p>\n

Fall-out from the resolution<\/u><\/p>\n

Trump seemed to take the resolution as a personal affront, with Nikki Haley threatening to pull aid funding<\/a> from the body beforehand, as well as holding an \u2018exclusive reception\u2019<\/a> to thank the 64 countries that voted against it, abstained, or were absent.<\/p>\n

Leaders didn\u2019t respond well to the threats, with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan accusing the US of trying to buy off countries\u2019 votes. He implored others to not \u201csell off democratic free will”.<\/p>\n

Palestinians have called Trump\u2019s decision the \u201cbiggest mistake of his life\u201d with their representative to the UN warning that the move “serves the Israeli government in implementing its colonial plans\u2026 the powers of extremism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Palestinians have called Trump\u2019s decision the “biggest mistake of his life”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Few expect Trump to follow through on his threat to pull funding from those who voted for the resolution, but there will no doubt be major repercussions down the line. Indeed, there already have been; the Israeli government, pushed by right-wing politicians have taken a number of legislative steps<\/a> to solidify their claim over Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

One such measure has made it more difficult for a peace deal to be reached where land currently occupied by Israel is given to Palestinians. Another, which was abandoned, proposed giving them the power to re-draw municipalities in East Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s party has also added to their platform the intention to impose Israeli law in East Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

What does the future hold?<\/u><\/p>\n

As the Israelis are emboldened in their claim to Jerusalem, it makes the prospect of a peace deal much slimmer. While future administrations could move the US embassy back to Tel Aviv, and rescind Trump\u2019s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital, this would undoubtedly strain the US\/Israel relationship. Israel are unlikely to cede any land they gain back to Palestinians – that much we can infer from the legislation they have been working on.<\/p>\n

UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres expressed the UN\u2019s uncompromised support for the peace process<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UN Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres expressed the UN\u2019s uncompromised support for the peace process, saying \u201cThere is no alternative to the two-state solution, no plan B.\u201d It is likely that the status quo on Jerusalem will endure and that it will remain a \u2018final status\u2019 issue for most leaders (that is, an extremely sensitive issue that will be left to the end of any peace deal).The resolution to reject Trump\u2019s decision was a symbolic gesture, so it is unlikely to effect any real change with regards to the status of Jerusalem. It does, however serve as a reassurance to Palestinians that the majority of UN member nations have not taken, and do not intend to take a side in the conflict. While this reassurance is lacking in that perhaps the most powerful country in the UN is opposed to it, the US has lost some of its clout on the world stage due to their crude and at times isolationist foreign policy. As a result, this administration\u2019s backing might not mean as much as that of previous presidents.<\/p>\n

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By Olivia Gibson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}