Palestinian Rage Over Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Protests continue on Sunday, Palestinian Legislative Council member Abu Zneid, saying we’ll “never give up. This is our country and we will save it. We will save our capital and our sovereignty here in Jerusalem.”
Sunday confrontations continued in East Jerusalem, Israeli forces attacking protesters viciously. Others in Bethlehem were violently confronted, dozens injured, including Aida refugee camp residents north of the city.
Last month, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl said “health experts (explained) residents of Bethlehem’s Aida camp are exposed to more tear gas than any other population surveyed globally.”
According to Palestinian Red Crescent Society spokeswoman Erab Sukaha on Sunday, at least 1,400 Palestinians have been injured so far, six known deaths, numerous arrests made.
Jordanian MPs voted unanimously to review the 1994 peace treaty and all other agreements with Israel, the country’s parliamentary legal committee tasked with recording Israeli violations, then recommending appropriate action.
It’s a symbolic gesture only, bilateral relations unlikely to change. Jordan is custodian of East Jerusalem holy sites, under its control until seized by Israel in June 1967, annexation following later.
Trump’s Jerusalem declaration crossed a red line of no return, going beyond what no previous US president dared to do, Israel to take full advantage with US encouragement and support.
The New York Times disgracefully called Jerusalem “the capital of Israel, both as the ancestral Jewish homeland and the modern nation-state.”
“So why maintain the fiction that Jerusalem isn’t the capital, adding “(i)t will have no effect on whether or how a Palestinian state comes into being.”
“Recognition…tells the Palestinians that they can no longer hold other parties hostage to their demands.”
Their “demands” are supported by international law. America and Israel are “hostage” takers, not them. Jerusalem as Israel’s exclusive capital is pure “fiction,” enforced by occupation harshness, not by legitimacy.
Political analyst Hamid Dabashi believes “Jews, Christians, and Muslims will continue to live in Palestine for generations after Zionism has ended up where all other imperial and colonial conquests of Palestine have ended: in the dustbin of history.”
America and Israel partner in each other’s high crimes, one rogue state supporting the other, Palestinians and others paying dearly for their imperial lawlessness.
East Jerusalem as its capital is a core Palestinian issue, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
Trump’s declaration makes protracted regional violence and turbulence more likely – serving US and Israeli interests, Palestinians and other Arabs paying the price.
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