Confirmed: Trump to Declare Jerusalem Israel’s Capital
by Stephen Lendman
Declaring it will flagrantly violate international law. Jerusalem is an international city under a UN protectorate. Israel wants it entirely Judaized for its exclusive capital, Palestinians shut out.
For Zionists, the city is politically important, calling it the historic Jewish capital, its national and religious center, as well as the symbol of Judaism’s revival and prominence.
For Christians, it’s where Jesus lived and died. For Muslims, it’s their third holiest site (the Al-Aqsa Mosque) after Mecca’s Sacred Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet in Madina.
Candidate Trump disgracefully pledged recognizing the city as Israel’s capital. On Wednesday, he’ll deliver, a White House statement saying he’ll “make a major announcement on Jerusalem” at 1:00PM EST – infuriating Palestinians, the Arab street and world community.
According to unnamed White House officials, he’ll sign a waiver, delaying the move of America’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by six months for “logistical reasons,” a US consulate maintained in the city.
He may delay it again, an administration official saying it could “take years” before completing the move. His address later on Wednesday will exclude a timeline.
His decision is further proof of the peace process hoax, the latest chapter dead before initiated. East Jerusalem as Palestine’s exclusive capital is fundamental for Palestinians. The issue is nonnegotiable.
Without it, peace is unattainable – precisely what Washington and Israel want, pretending otherwise. A legitimate peace process never existed, for sure not now with Ziofascists infesting the Trump administration.
Claiming to seek regional peace is a useful fiction, giving Israel maximum time to steal all valued Judea and Samaria land for exclusive Jewish development.
Palestinians are increasingly confined to isolated cantons, their fundamental rights denied, Gazans besieged by suffocating blockade, the Strip invaded and terror-bombed at Israel’s discretion.
The world community largely ignores a decade-long Israeli atrocity, two million Gazans victimized by its ruthlessness. So are all Palestinians, including diaspora ones, denied their fundamental right of return.
In his Wednesday address, Trump is expected to express support for Palestinian statehood. So have previous US presidents, saying one thing, delivering nothing but endless pain and suffering for millions of Palestinians – viciously oppressed by a ruthless occupying power, its high crimes supported by Washington.
Other than Saudi Arabia and perhaps a few other despotic states, the world community strongly opposes Trump’s move.
Reportedly, he and Netanyahu conspired in advance, other leaders he spoke to not informed until Tuesday.
Following his announcement on Wednesday, Netanyahu will deliver an address on the move – two bad actors plotting against fundamental Palestinian rights, pretending to want peace, undermining it by their actions.
PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi blasted Trump, saying he’s “hell-bent on annihilating the chances of peace and destroying the stability and security of the entire region and beyond, provoking violence and playing into the hands of extremists and terrorists around the world.”
His action is “illegal (and) designed to inflame religious and spiritual sentiments…raising the specter of sectarianism and religious strife.”
Oslo promised Palestinians East Jerusalem as their exclusive capital. No country has its embassy in the city, America the sole outlier if Trump makes the move.
Americans for Peace Now called the plan “pyromaniacal,” a gift to Zionist extremists, wanting “to blow up (the latest chapter of the) peace process before it begins.”
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Abbas said recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving America’s embassy there “would end the peace process.”
Fire and fury Trump warned North Korea about could erupt in Occupied Palestine and the Arab street.
Israel’s claim of the city as its exclusive capital has no validity. Nor does Trump’s action, aimed at inciting conflict, not resolving it.
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