THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. When I came into office, I promised to look at the world’s challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking. We cannot solve our problems by making the same failed assumptions and repeating the same failed strategies of the past. Old challenges demand new approaches.
My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
In 1995, Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, urging the federal government to relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize that that city — and so importantly — is Israel’s capital. This act passed Congress by an overwhelming bipartisan majority and was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate only six months ago.
Yet, for over 20 years, every previous American president has exercised the law’s waiver, refusing to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem or to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.
Presidents issued these waivers under the belief that delaying the recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace. Some say they lacked courage, but they made their best judgments based on facts as they understood them at the time. Nevertheless, the record is in. After more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result.
Therefore, I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.
I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement.
Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace.
It was 70 years ago that the United States, under President Truman, recognized the State of Israel. Ever since then, Israel has made its capital in the city of Jerusalem — the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times. Today, Jerusalem is the seat of the modern Israeli government. It is the home of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as well as the Israeli Supreme Court. It is the location of the official residence of the Prime Minister and the President. It is the headquarters of many government ministries.
For decades, visiting American presidents, secretaries of state, and military leaders have met their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem, as I did on my trip to Israel earlier this year.
Jerusalem is not just the heart of three great religions, but it is now also the heart of one of the most successful democracies in the world. Over the past seven decades, the Israeli people have built a country where Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and people of all faiths are free to live and worship according to their conscience and according to their beliefs.
Jerusalem is today, and must remain, a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross, and where Muslims worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
However, through all of these years, presidents representing the United States have declined to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In fact, we have declined to acknowledge any Israeli capital at all.
But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.
That is why, consistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, I am also directing the State Department to begin preparation to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This will immediately begin the process of hiring architects, engineers, and planners, so that a new embassy, when completed, will be a magnificent tribute to peace.
In making these announcements, I also want to make one point very clear: This decision is not intended, in any way, to reflect a departure from our strong commitment to facilitate a lasting peace agreement. We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians. We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved.
The United States remains deeply committed to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides. I intend to do everything in my power to help forge such an agreement. Without question, Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive issues in those talks. The United States would support a two-state solution if agreed to by both sides.
In the meantime, I call on all parties to maintain the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites, including the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif.
Above all, our greatest hope is for peace, the universal yearning in every human soul. With today’s action, I reaffirm my administration’s longstanding commitment to a future of peace and security for the region.
There will, of course, be disagreement and dissent regarding this announcement. But we are confident that ultimately, as we work through these disagreements, we will arrive at a peace and a place far greater in understanding and cooperation.
This sacred city should call forth the best in humanity, lifting our sights to what it is possible; not pulling us back and down to the old fights that have become so totally predictable. Peace is never beyond the grasp of those willing to reach.
So today, we call for calm, for moderation, and for the voices of tolerance to prevail over the purveyors of hate. Our children should inherit our love, not our conflicts.
I repeat the message I delivered at the historic and extraordinary summit in Saudi Arabia earlier this year: The Middle East is a region rich with culture, spirit, and history. Its people are brilliant, proud, and diverse, vibrant and strong. But the incredible future awaiting this region is held at bay by bloodshed, ignorance, and terror.
Vice President Pence will travel to the region in the coming days to reaffirm our commitment to work with partners throughout the Middle East to defeat radicalism that threatens the hopes and dreams of future generations.
It is time for the many who desire peace to expel the extremists from their midst. It is time for all civilized nations, and people, to respond to disagreement with reasoned debate –- not violence.
And it is time for young and moderate voices all across the Middle East to claim for themselves a bright and beautiful future.
So today, let us rededicate ourselves to a path of mutual understanding and respect. Let us rethink old assumptions and open our hearts and minds to possible and possibilities. And finally, I ask the leaders of the region — political and religious; Israeli and Palestinian; Jewish and Christian and Muslim — to join us in the noble quest for lasting peace.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless Israel. God bless the Palestinians. And God bless the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY Published 4:01 a.m. ET Dec. 18, 2017 | Updated 1:39 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2017
U.S. recognition of Jerusalem a 'bomb' in the Mideast according to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Video provided by AFP Newslook
The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Monday intended to invalidate President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
While the vote was certain to fail because Washington has a permanent veto on the 15-member council, it further isolates Trump on the world stage on the issue.
The Egyptian-drafted text approved by the 14 other council members demanded "all States comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions."
Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy when he said he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital — a decision that will see the U.S. Embassy move there from Tel Aviv. Palestinians also claim parts of Jerusalem as the capital of any future state for them.
A successful resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by permanent members of the council: the U.S., France, Britain, Russia and China.
Ahead of the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told the security council at its monthly briefing Monday on the political situation in the Middle East that a sovereign nation has "every right" to decide where to put its embassy.
She said the resolution was "an insult" that won’t be forgotten.
Reacting to the veto, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter to thank Haley and Trump for their support.
"You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Nikki Haley," he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his previous comments that said that Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem meant Washington had forfeited its ability to play a role in mediating a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis.
A UN security council resolution calling for the withdrawal of Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has been backed by every council member except the US, which used its veto.
The unanimity of the rest of the council was a stark rebuke to the Trump administration over its unilateral move earlier this month, which upended decades of international consensus.
The Egyptian-drafted resolution did not specifically mention the US or Trump but expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem”.
A spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, responded to the veto by saying it was “unacceptable and threatens the stability of the international community because it disrespects it”.
The UK and France had indicated in advance that they would would back the text, which demanded that all countries comply with pre-existing UN Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The resolution was denounced in furious language by the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who described it as “an insult” that would not be forgotten. “The United States will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy,” she said.
“It’s scandalous to say we are putting back peace efforts,” she added. “The fact that this veto is being done in defence of American sovereignty and in defence of America’s role in the Middle East peace process is not a source of embarrassment for us; it should be an embarrassment to the remainder of the Security Council.”
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted: “Thank you, Ambassador Haley. On Hanukkah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump.”
Q&A
Why is recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital so contentious?
Of all the issues at the heart of the enduring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, none is as sensitive as the status of Jerusalem. The holy city has been at the centre of peace-making efforts for decades.
Seventy years ago, when the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Jerusalem was defined as a separate entity under international supervision. In the war of 1948 it was divided, like Berlin in the cold war, into western and eastern sectors under Israeli and Jordanian control respectively. Nineteen years later, in June 1967, Israel captured the eastern side, expanded the city’s boundaries and annexed it – an act that was never recognised internationally.
Israel routinely describes the city, with its Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy places, as its “united and eternal” capital. For their part, the Palestinians say East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state. The unequivocal international view, accepted by all previous US administrations, is that the city’s status must be addressed in peace negotiations.
Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital puts the US out of step with the rest of the world, and legitimises Israeli settlement-building in the east – considered illegal under international law.
The tabling of the resolution followed a weekend of negotiations aimed at securing the widest consensus possible on the issue. The vote has underlined once again the widespread international opposition to the US move, even among some of its closest allies.
However, Pence announced on Monday night that he was postponing the trip until February, citing the imminent congressional votes on tax reform, set to take place in the House and Senate starting on Tuesday. “The vice-president is committed to seeing the tax cut through to the finish line,” his spokeswoman said.
Abbas’s Fatah party has called for a day of demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories to coincide with the Pence trip.
Palestinian officials had warned that in the event of a US veto on the Security Council, they would also seek a resolution at the General Assembly.
The push for a vote – which came in the knowledge that the US would use its veto – followed Trump’s decision to overturn decades of policy by declaring that the US recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and that he plans to move its embassy there.
Speaking before the vote, the UK’s ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, said the text was in line with London’s position on Jerusalem as an issue that must be resolved through negotiations.
In an apparent rejection of the authority of the security council, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Dann, said before the vote: “Members of the council can vote again and again – a hundred more times. It won’t change the simple fact that Jerusalem is, has been, and always will be the capital of Israel.”
In the immediate aftermath of the US veto, Abbas announced that the Palestinian leadership would move to seek full membership of the United Nations, and try to raise the issue at an emergency meeting of the UN general assembly.
Palestine was admitted to the UN under the same observer status as the Vatican, but the road to full state membership is more complicated than persuading 14 security council members to back existing resolutions on the status of Jerusalem.
While Palestinians would probably get sufficient votes in the UN general assembly, it would first need to secure nine affirmative votes in the security council for the recommendation, with no vetoes.
The Palestinians and their supporters in the UN appear to be attempting to force the Trump administration into using its veto in ways that isolate both Israel and the US, in the hope of drawing in wider international mediation of the peace process.
“It’s a diplomatic battle we are fighting,” one official told the Guardian. “And so far we are having results. It is clear to us that the United States cannot be a mediator and we need international assistance.”
Abbas is expected to visit Saudi Arabia and France this week to rally support.
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Updated 2133 GMT December 18, 2017
5 things to know about Trump's national security strategy
Trump outlines national security plan (full speech)27:02
Story highlights
It focuses heavily on economic relationships with other countries
It breaks with assessments that climate change is a threat to national security
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump unveiled his administration's national security strategy on Monday, outlining the foundation and priorities that will drive US foreign policy during his time in office.
He touted the plan in a campaign-style speech that spared no words in criticizing the policies of his predecessors, even if it didn't get into detail about some of his administration's concerns about Russia.
Here are five things you need to know about Trump's national security strategy.
Economic security is national security
The Trump administration's national security strategy focuses heavily on the US's economic relationships with other countries, arguing that the US's economic security is fundamental to national security.
The document makes clear that "America First" is more than just a campaign slogan but now a guiding force in the US's foreign policy making. Trump's strategy draws attention to the US's trade imbalances with other countries and warns of "economic aggression" from other countries like China as key national security concerns.
The strategy document -- required by congressional mandate -- reflects Trump's focus on trade since coming into office, and while it does not threaten the use of tariffs as Trump has, it makes clear the US will ensure that trade is "fair and reciprocal."
"The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to violations, cheating, or economic aggression," the document says.
Trump's speech was an unconventional presentation of his national security strategy, one that he used as an opportunity to tout a booming US economy and his other successes in his first year in office.
Calling out China and Russia: 'Rival powers'
The document repeatedly draws attention to China and Russia as two countries that "challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity."
Trump in his speech referred to both countries as "rival powers."
China will remain a key target of the administration's focus on guarding US economic security, and Trump's national security strategy repeatedly calls out abusive Chinese trade practices, such as its theft of US companies' intellectual property.
Trump's strategy also goes far further than the President publicly has in calling out destabilizing Russian behavior across the globe, including its violations of Ukrainian and Georgian sovereignty.
The document calls attention to Russian attempts to meddle in democracies and makes clear that the US is keeping a wary eye on Russian influence campaigns -- even though Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the US intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election.
"Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies," the document says.
"Russia uses information operations as part of its offensive cyber efforts to influence public opinion across the globe. Its influence campaigns blend covert intelligence operations and false online personas with state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or 'trolls.' "
Top threats: Rogue regimes, terrorism and more
At the top of the Trump administration's list of threats to the US are countries Trump has branded as "rogue regimes": namely North Korea and Iran.
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile activities have become the most pressing national security concern of Trump's tenure, and Iran's support of terrorist groups and its attempts to expand its influence in the Middle East are also key concerns, the document says.
To confront the threat of jihadist terrorism, the Trump administration's strategy calls for keeping up US military action against terrorist groups like ISIS and combating radicalization in the United States.
The national security strategy also emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity and immigration enforcement, and reiterates Trump's call for a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Trump bashes previous administrations02:20
Climate change, scrapped
The plan breaks with assessments by the Obama administration and the current leadership at the Pentagon that climate change is a threat to US national security.
The document references the "importance of environmental stewardship" only in passing in a section focused on "energy dominance," including tapping into the US's domestic energy resources, including fossil fuels like "coal, natural gas, petroleum."
The decision not to recognize climate change follows the President's withdrawal earlier this year from the Paris climate accords -- despite international condemnation -- and his repeal of a slew of environmental regulations.
A written strategy ... and a speech
A key takeaway of the new national security strategy became evident as Trump delivered a speech Monday aimed at presenting the new strategy to the country and the world: that the document may never fully translate to the President's words and actions.
While the national security strategy document refers to Russia nearly two dozen times, criticizing its meddling in other countries' affairs and its attempts to undermine the US, Trump referenced Russia only once, alongside China, when he called both "rival powers."
Trump then pivoted to his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to discuss intelligence cooperation that thwarted a terrorist attack in Russia.
The President also did not refer to Russia's influence campaigns as referenced in the national security strategy document.
He also used the speech as an opportunity to bash his predecessors, slamming "the failures of the past" and lobbing a thinly veiled attack at his most immediate predecessor, President Barack Obama.
"They neglected a nuclear menace in North Korea; made a disastrous, weak, and incomprehensibly bad deal with Iran; and allowed terrorists such as ISIS to gain control of vast parts of territory all across the Middle East," Trump said.
Christians and Jews Now Compare Trump to Persian King Cyrus – Will He Build the Third Temple?
Like Cyrus 2,500 years ago, Trump is seen as an instrument of God. And the plan: to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount – where the Al-Aqsa Mosque currently stands Allison Kaplan Sommer
Dec 16, 2017 | Tevet 1, 5778 Time in Israel: 4:31 PM Haaretz
Political junkies and Middle East analysts have had to bone up on their conservative Christian theology to properly understand why Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was so important to the evangelicals who lobbied hard for it and have been lauding it all week.
Trump was already a hero to a wide swath of evangelicals for his efforts to fight abortion, keep transgender kids out of the wrong bathrooms and fill the U.S. courts with die-hard conservative judges. But the role he’s playing in what many believe is the fulfillment of divine prophecy has gotten him promoted to king for some of them – an ancient Persian king to be precise.
For his willingness to confront conventional diplomatic wisdom, shrug off dire warnings of triggering Middle East unrest and declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, Trump is increasingly being compared by evangelicals – and Jews on the religious right – to Persia’s King Cyrus II, also known as Cyrus the Great. "Trump in his generation, as Cyrus in his", tweeted Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. The bolder have gone so far as to suggest that Trump doesn’t just merely resemble the Persian king, he’s Cyrus reincarnated.
It’s not a new concept. Trump-Cyrus comparisons have been batted around on the religious right since the New York businessman’s presidential campaign, particularly as he began to aggressively court evangelicals. But since the Jerusalem declaration, such comparisons are appearing more frequently and intensely than ever in sectarian media and on social networks.
Who exactly was King Cyrus? The Persian conqueror lived between 590 and 529 B.C.E. and is immortalized in the Bible’s Book of Isaiah, where he is called Koresh, the heroic pagan ruler who liberated the Jews from captivity in Babylonia and brought them back to their homeland to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email*
Even though Cyrus would have been unfamiliar with the Jewish deity, it was prophesied that he would bring down the Babylonian Empire, be the leader to facilitate the building of the Second Temple and restore Jerusalem to her former glory. And these events indeed came to pass, according to the Bible. After Cyrus conquered and ruled over ancient Babylon, he decreed that the Temple should be rebuilt and the exiled Jews could return to Jerusalem to rebuild it. Thus the Persian king is often described as something of a holy instrument who was delivered by God to help restore the Jewish people in their homeland.
Trump, his religious supporters argue, is perfectly cast in the role of a powerful historical figure who is neither a God nor a messiah nor even a believer himself. Like Cyrus, they say, he is a tough leader fighting on the side of the righteous, an instrument used by God to serve His master plan. And the plan as they see it: to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount – where the Al-Aqsa Mosque currently stands.
Cyrus in a White House statement
Initial comparisons of Trump and Cyrus date back to early 2016, when the tough-talking GOP candidate’s popularity among evangelicals initially split evangelical leaders, some of whom hesitated to support a man whose life choices haven’t exactly exemplified family values. In a Christian Broadcasting Network interview in April 2016, evangelical leader and author Lance Wallnau argued for Christian support for the candidate, contending that “Trump has the Cyrus anointing” and so, in a dangerous world, “with Trump, I believe we have a Cyrus to navigate through the storm.” Such comparisons have surfaced periodically in the Christian media ever since.
“Could it be that Trump, like Cyrus, clearly does not know the Lord in a real and personal way but could still be used by God to accomplish His purposes?” asked Charisma News columnist Michael Brown. “Is Donald Trump a modern-day Cyrus?” A Cyrus the Great monument at Sydney Olympic Park, Australia, March 15, 2009. A Cyrus the Great monument at Sydney Olympic Park, Australia, March 15, 2009.Siamax / Wikimedia Commons
In what was seen as a shout-out to those who viewed him as having Cyrus-like qualities, Trump actually quoted the ancient king in March to mark the Persian New Year. As the White House statement read: “Cyrus the Great, a leader of the ancient Persian Empire, famously said that ‘freedom, dignity, and wealth together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die.’”
Following the Jerusalem declaration, many evangelicals posted videos of sermons making the case for Trump as Cyrus. One shows a pastor explaining that Trump’s penchant for saber rattling stems from God’s anointing Trump to do battle in the same way Cyrus did. “God has anointed him” against “the forces of hell,” she said. “You have to see Trump through a spiritual lens.”
But it’s not only Christians who have embraced the comparison; ideological right-wing religious Jews have as well. Likud Knesset member Yehudah Glick, Israel’s most famous advocate of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, invoked the comparison at a Trump inauguration interfaith prayer ceremony, saying that if Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, “He will be the latter-day Cyrus!”
Different goals, actually
Tamar Yonah is a West Bank settler whose radio show also appears on the website Jewish Press. Since the Jerusalem declaration, her social media feed has been buzzing with the issue of whether Trump might even be the reincarnation of Cyrus.
The similarities were striking, she said. “There are a lot of people who hate [Trump], but, then you can imagine that Cyrus when he was going to let the Jewish people go back to Jerusalem and build the Jewish Temple must have had a lot of enemies as well who didn’t want to see this done,” she said.
Asaf Fried, spokesman for the United Temple Movement, a group that takes Temple Mount activism beyond the push for Jews to pray there and seeks the actual building of a Third Temple, has been making the media rounds. He has been praising Trump for taking an “enormous step” toward making a rebuilt Third Temple a reality. The move, he said, “necessarily had to come from a non-Jew in order to bring them into the process, so they will be able to take their part in the Temple.”
While some of these extreme religious Jews may be joining their Christian brothers and sisters in celebrating Trump’s bold move and sharing hopes that the building of the Temple is imminent, they prefer to ignore that the Christians and Jews want this to happen with very different goals in mind.
Jews who want to rebuild the Temple believe that realizing this dream will revive a more complete and authentic practice of Judaism including ancient rituals such as animal sacrifices, as well as the judicial, legislative and executive authority of Jewish society from centuries past. While these Jews don’t preach that this will lead directly to the coming of the messiah, presumably they hope that on some level it will help.
Their efforts are viewed as deeply controversial and even dangerous – the vast majority of mainstream Orthodox-Jewish rabbis believe that messianic redemption has to precede the building of the Temple. And, obviously, the idea of displacing Islam from one of its holiest sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, whether by man or God, is deeply offensive to Muslims and politically explosive, to put it mildly.
The Christian imagining of a Third Temple rebuilt by the Jews is the beginning of the end of the Jewish religion, according to this theology. Such Christians see the rebuilding of the Temple as the match that sets the world ablaze with the Battle of Armageddon. Saved from the battle will be those who accept Jesus, including the Jews, who will see the light and convert to Christianity.
They will be spared and all others destroyed, Jesus will return and a golden age of glory and peace will begin, its center Jerusalem. At that point, presumably, it won’t matter whose capital city it is or where anyone’s embassy is located.
Jerusalem has to be shared': Palestinian Christians decry Trump's decision
East Jerusalem is considered occupied Palestinian territory under international law. [Getty]
Date of publication: 11 December, 2017
Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital has left Palestinian Christians dismayed, with communities worried about their future in the city following the historic shift in US foreign policy.
President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital has left Palestinian Christians concerned about their future in the city following the historic shift in US foreign policy.
The future of Jerusalem - home to some of the holiest sites in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - is one of the most critical final status issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump's announcement on Wednesday that the US embassy would be moved to the contested city effectively takes Jerusalem off the negotiating table in any future talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
Since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Israeli policy in East Jerusalem has sought to engineer a Jewish majority through land expropriation, building restrictions on Palestinians, and settlement expansion.
Designated as permanent residents instead of national citizens, Palestinians in Jerusalem - around 40 percent of the population - face a precarious future.
But for the small yet vibrant Palestinian Christian community - estimated at 60,000 in the entire occupied Palestinian territories - political upheaval is an existential threat.
Evangelical base
The dramatic shift in US policy fulfilled a campaign promise which had largely been directed at Trump's Evangelical Christian base, which has been a powerful force in American politics since the 1980s and is staunchly pro-Israel.
Around 81 percent of Evangelicals voted for Trump in the 2016 election.
Vice-President Mike Pence's rise to the second most important position in US politics has given greater influence to the Christian religious right - or Christian Zionists, as they are also called - and he is thought to have played an active role in Trump's Jerusalem decision.
The dramatic shift in US policy fulfilled a campaign promise which had largely been directed at Trump's Evangelical Christian base, a powerful force in American politics.
The vice-president stood behind Trump as he announced the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and has an upcoming visit to the region which the White House initially framed as a show of support for Christians in the Middle East.
They, however, have strongly rebuffed the trip, again showing the chasm in ideology and practice between the Western political Christian right and Arab Christians.
'The first church'
Egypt's Coptic Church head Pope Tawadros II - leader of the largest Christian community in the Arab world - said he would not meet Pence following Trump's Jerusalem decision, while Palestinian officials have pressured church leaders to follow suit.
Palestinians protested the move by turning off the lights of the Christmas tree outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity - the traditional birthplace of Jesus - while the city's mayor said there were no plans to welcome him if he did visit.
Yusef Daher, head of the Jerusalem Inter Church Center said the Palestinian Christian community was saddened by Trump's decision, especially the justification used by Christian Zionists who believe Jews must return to Israel in order to fulfil biblical prophecy.
"It's like reading a different Bible", Daher told The New Arab. "We have to remind Mike Pence and others that Palestinians were the first church and the first followers of Jesus Christ."
There is also ongoing concern that the decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital could further entrench the suppression of Palestinian religious and cultural identities, contributing to the flight of Christians from Palestine.
Over recent decades Christians have left Bethlehem and Jerusalem in their thousands.
"If Israel continues with its discriminatory policies in East Jerusalem it will limit the ability of Christians to remain viable," Daher said. "It will lead to more immigration out of city."
An inclusive Jerusalem
Ahead of Trump's announcement, the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem issued a joint letter to the US president decrying his decision.
"Our solemn advice and plea is for the United States to continue recognising the present international status of Jerusalem," the letter read.
"As the Christian leaders of Jerusalem, we invite you to walk with us in hope as we build a just, inclusive peace for all the peoples of this unique and Holy City."
Nora Karmi, co-ordinator for Kairos Palestine, said that whether justified politically or religiously, the US administration's decision has left Palestinians angry.
"As a Palestinian I think it's the biggest mistake that any US president has done. I don't think he has read any international law - he doesn't know the history of this area," she told The New Arab.
"As a Christian, I cannot take certain verses of the bible literally to give rights to a people which are not the only one that has been in this country for so many years."
Until Trump's declaration, no other country had ever recognised Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal capital" since Israel's first premier Ben Gurion moved government offices to the city 68-years-ago.
Despite the system of segregation in the city between Palestinians and Israelis, Jerusalem's importance to three faiths means its future must be inclusive.
"Jerusalem has to be shared," Karmi said.
"We have said that for over 70 years but nobody wants to listen to us."
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U.N., European Union and Pope Criticize Trump’s Jerusalem Announcement
Global and regional leaders warned of the dangers of declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. President Trump announced the change on Wednesday.
By THE NEW YORK TIMES on Publish Date December 6, 2017. Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters.
ROME — Pope Francis said, “I cannot remain silent.” The United Nations secretary general spoke of his “great anxiety.” The European Union expressed “serious concern.” American allies like Britain, France, Germany and Italy all declared it a mistake.
A chorus of international leaders criticized the Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling it a dangerous disruption that contravenes United Nations resolutions and could inflame one of the world’s thorniest conflicts.
Secretary General António Guterres and Pope Francis both expressed alarm that the announcement would provoke new tensions in the Holy City, which is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Within minutes of Mr. Trump’s speech, in which he said the American Embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Mr. Guterres delivered what amounted to a diplomatic rebuke.
Reading a statement outside the Security Council chambers at United Nations headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres criticized “any unilateral measures that would jeopardize the prospect of peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” underscoring the administration’s departure from decades of American policy.
“Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved through direct negotiations between the two parties on the basis of the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, taking into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,” Mr. Guterres said.
“In this moment of great anxiety, I want to make it clear: There is no alternative to the two-state solution,” he said. “There is no Plan B.”
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed that Jerusalem’s status be preserved and needless conflict avoided.
“I cannot remain silent about my deep concern for the situation that has developed in recent days,” Francis said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican. “And at the same time, I wish to make a heartfelt appeal to ensure that everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”
“Jerusalem is a unique city,” he said, “sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, where the Holy Places for the respective religions are venerated, and it has a special vocation to peace.”
In especially strong language, the pope added, “I pray to the Lord that such identity be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the entire world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail, to avoid adding new elements of tension in a world already shaken and scarred by many cruel conflicts.”
Protesters burned the flags of Israel and the United States in Gaza City on Wednesday.Credit Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, expressed concern about “the repercussions this may have on the prospect of peace.”
In a statement, she reiterated the bloc’s position that Jerusalem should be a future capital of two states, Israeli and Palestinian, and that embassies should not be moved there until the city’s final status was resolved. She cited a 1980 United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s attempted annexation of East Jerusalem as a violation of international law.
She called on actors in the region “to show calm and restraint in order to prevent any escalation.”
Within a few hours of Mr. Trump’s speech, eight countries on the 15-member Security Council — including some of America’s closest allies — requested an emergency meeting to be held before the end of the week. Diplomats said it would most likely be scheduled for Friday.
Joakim Vaverka, political coordinator of Sweden’s United Nations mission, said in a statement that the delegations of Bolivia, Britain, Egypt, France, Italy, Senegal, Sweden and Uruguay had sought the meeting, including a briefing by Mr. Guterres, “in light of the statement today by the president of the United States regarding the status of Jerusalem.”
The warnings by the pope, the United Nations and the European Union spoke to a broad fear that Mr. Trump’s announcement would be the death knell for an already moribund peace process and that it would pull the plug on a two-state solution.
Critics of the announcement said the change in policy removed any pretense that the United States is a neutral broker for peace. Palestinians and other Arabs in the region already view the Trump administration as leaning toward Israel’s right-wing government. The change in American policy “destroys the peace process,” said the Palestinian prime minister, Rami Hamdallah.
Some of the United States’ closest allies expressed apprehension.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain called Mr. Trump’s decision “unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region.”
President Emmanuel Macron of France, who was in Algeria on Wednesday meeting with the country’s president and other figures, said in a news conference that the decision by Mr. Trump was “regrettable” and that “France and Europe are committed to a two-state solution.” He called on all parties to refrain from violence.
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said through a spokesman that her government “does not support this position, because the status of Jerusalem is to be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution.”
Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy wrote on Twitter: “Jerusalem holy city, unique on earth. Its future will be defined within the framework of the peace process based on the two states, Israel and Palestine.”
Middle EastBy CAMILLA SCHICK
President Trump declared recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Here’s why that’s so fraught.
By CAMILLA SCHICK on Publish Date December 5, 2017. Photo by Oded Balilty/Associated Press.
In China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Geng Shuang, expressed support for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and urged all parties to the conflict to proceed cautiously. “What we worry about is any potential flare-up of regional tensions,” he said. “The status of Jerusalem is a complicated and sensitive issue.”
Britain’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, told reporters in Brussels, “Clearly this is a decision that makes it more important than ever that the long-awaited American proposals on the Middle East peace process are now brought forward.”
That process, led by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has seemingly failed to get off the ground.
Leaders in the region had already warned against the move. A statement from the royal palace of King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose kingdom is the custodian of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, emphasized that the city was critical to “achieving peace and stability in the region and the world.”
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was convening a summit meeting of the main Pan-Islamic body next week in Istanbul to discuss the American move and to show, as his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara, “joint action among Islamic countries.”
Mr. Kalin called the expected change a “grave mistake,” adding that “Jerusalem is our honor, Jerusalem is our common cause, Jerusalem is our red line.”
Iran, unsurprisingly, condemned the change. Its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday that it reflected the “incompetence and failure” of the American government.
Like much of Europe, the Vatican has long been sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians. The Vatican established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994, and Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI visited Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In 2012, the Vatican called for “an internationally guaranteed special statute” for Jerusalem, with the goal of “safeguarding the freedom of religion and of conscience, the identity and sacred character of Jerusalem as a Holy City, (and) respect for, and freedom of, access to its holy places.”
Francis visited the Holy Land in 2014, but he upset some Israelis by flying by helicopter directly from Jordan to the “State of Palestine,” as the Vatican schedule at the time referred to the territories. He visited Israel afterward.
In 2015, the Vatican entered into a treaty with the “State of Palestine.”
On Tuesday, Francis spoke by telephone to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, about the unfolding crisis. Before the pope’s public remarks to the faithful at the Vatican on Wednesday, he met privately with a group of Palestinians participating in interfaith dialogue with officials at the Vatican.
“The Holy Land is for us Christians the land par excellence of dialogue between God and mankind,” he said. “The primary condition of that dialogue is reciprocal respect and a commitment to strengthening that respect, for the sake of recognizing the rights of all people, wherever they happen to be.”
Reporting was contributed by Melissa Eddy and Steven Erlanger from Berlin; Rick Gladstone from New York; Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong; and Alissa J. Rubin from Paris.
UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as capital
The United Nations body’s debate and vote highlighted for a second time in a week the international isolation of the United States over the Jerusalem issue.
The moment the UN votes to reject Trump’s position on Jerusalem
The vote came after a redoubling of threats by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, who said that Washington would remember which countries “disrespected” America by voting against it.
Despite the warning, 128 members voted on Thursday in favour of the resolution supporting the longstanding international consensus that the status of Jerusalem – which is claimed as a capital by both Israel and the Palestinians – can only be settled as an agreed final issue in a peace deal. Countries which voted for the resolution included major recipients of US aid such as Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq.
But only nine states – including the United States and Israel –voted against the resolution. The other countries which supported Washington were Togo, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras.
'We will remember this’: US slams UN Jerusalem vote – video
Twenty-two of the 28 EU countries voted for the resolution, including the UK and France. Germany – which in the past has abstained on measures relating to Israel – also voted in favour.
Thirty-five countries abstained, including five EU states, and other US allies including Australia, Canada, Colombia and Mexico. Ambassadors from several abstaining countries, including Mexico, used their time on the podium to criticise Trump’s unilateral move.
Another 21 delegations were absent from the vote, suggesting the Trump’s warning over funding cuts and Israel’s lobbying may have had some effect.
While support for the resolution was somewhat less than Palestinian officials had hoped, the meagre tally of just nine votes in support of the US and Israeli position was a serious diplomatic blow for Trump.
Immediately after the vote the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the result as a “victory for Palestine”. The Palestinians’ UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, described the result as a “massive setback” for the US.
“They made it about them,” Mansour told AFP. “They did not make it about Jerusalem, so when you make it about them and to only be able to get nine votes to say ‘no’ to it, I think it was a complete failure for their campaign.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the UN vote out of hand.
“Israel thanks President Trump for his unequivocal position in favour of Jerusalem and thanks the countries that voted together with Israel, together with the truth,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
“I must also say today: when we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have expectation that we will be respected,” she said. “What’s more, we are being asked to pay for the dubious privileges of being disrespected.”
Haley added: “If our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our investment in other ways … The United States will remember this day.”
Q&A
Of all the issues at the heart of the enduring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, none is as sensitive as the status of Jerusalem. The holy city has been at the centre of peace-making efforts for decades.
Seventy years ago, when the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Jerusalem was defined as a separate entity under international supervision. In the war of 1948 it was divided, like Berlin in the cold war, into western and eastern sectors under Israeli and Jordanian control respectively. Nineteen years later, in June 1967, Israel captured the eastern side, expanded the city’s boundaries and annexed it – an act that was never recognised internationally.
Israel routinely describes the city, with its Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy places, as its “united and eternal” capital. For their part, the Palestinians say East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state. The unequivocal international view, accepted by all previous US administrations, is that the city’s status must be addressed in peace negotiations.
Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital puts the US out of step with the rest of the world, and legitimises Israeli settlement-building in the east – considered illegal under international law.
Why is recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital so contentious?
In his own speech Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said UN members who backed the resolution were being manipulated. “You are like puppets pulled by your Palestinian masters,” he told the session.
While Thursday’s resolution was in support of existing UN resolutions on Jerusalem and the peace process, the clumsy intervention by Trump and Haley also made the vote a referendum on Trump’s often unilateral and abrasive foreign policy.
The threatening US posture, which had been denounced as both counter-productive and “bullying”, only seemed to have hardened the resolve of countries in opposing Trump’s 6 December move.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, called Trump’s recognition “null and void” and reaffirmed 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
It also “demands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions”.
Earlier on Thursday, as it had become clear that the US and Israel would be heavily defeated, Netanyahu preemptively denounced the vote calling the UN a “house of lies”.
“The state of Israel rejects this vote outright,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem is our capital, we will continue to build there and additional embassies will move to Jerusalem.
“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, whether or not the UN recognises this. It took 70 years for the United States to formally recognise this, and it will take years for the UN to do the same.”
Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy, called for Israel to cut its ties with the UN and expel the organisation from its Jerusalem offices.
“We must evict the UN from the scenic Governor’s House, where its bloated staff does nothing, and give this historic site to a school, a hospital or – best yet – a new US embassy.”
