On Wednesday December 6, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that his government recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and that therefore the U.S. embassy, now located in Tel Aviv, will be moving there.  Trump, with typical bombast, announced that the construction of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem would be “a magnificent monument to peace”.

Most of the rest of the world sees the move, rather, as being a harbinger of more conflict and war.

Subsequently, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that the move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will be a matter of years, but the damage to hopes for peace between Israel and Palestine is already severe.

In 1995, the U.S. Congress had voted for Jerusalem to be recognized as the Israeli capital and called for the embassy to be moved, but the legislation allowed for the White House to waive the requirement temporarily.  Trump’s predecessors, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, had repeatedly made use of this waiver, and Trump has issued it once again.  But the embassy announcement clearly shows the direction in which Trump is moving.

The Trump decision violates U.N. resolutions, including a key one in 1980, which have required that the final status of the city of Jerusalem should be settled in the context of peace negotiations aimed at resolving the long running conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people.  The Palestinians want largely Arab East Jerusalem to be the capital of a new, independent Palestinian state.   Israel has declared that the whole of undivided Jerusalem is its national capital.  The situation is complicated by the fact that some of the most sacred places of Islam, Judaism and Christianity are found in East Jerusalem.

International and local observers complain that Israeli control of East Jerusalem has led to mistreatment of its largely Palestinian population, who are deprived of civil and political rights and are subjected to other abuses.  Under the government of current Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, these abuses have been intensified.

All Palestinian factions reacted to Trump’s announcement with anger.   Hanan Ashrawi, a key Palestinian leader, denounced Trump’s move as “irresponsible” and “reckless” and a threat to the continuation of the peace process itself.  Not only in Palestine, but all over the Middle East and beyond, militant demonstrations against U.S. policy took place, causing the State Department to announce high security alerts.  The U.N. Security Council and most of the U.S.’s closest allies have denounced the Trump action as a danger to world peace generally, and the possibilities of peace in the Middle East specifically.  Both the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements have joined in the denunciations, as have many Jewish and other leaders and organizations in the United States itself.

Once again, Trump and his government have shown themselves to be a danger to world peace and international justice.

Trump’s action once more shows his own right-wing extremist orientation, as well as his links to the ultra right worldwide.  In this, he displays his eagerness to do the bidding of the most extreme elements in the U.S. body politic, including the most reactionary sectors of right-wing Evangelical Christianity and far-right elements of the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States, as well as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigots.  These are people to whom he owes his election as president, and there have been many indications of the direction in which he is moving to return the favor.   These include the appointment of his own son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has ties to the settler movement, to be in charge of U.S. efforts in the Middle East peace process. Trump also lines up on this with the most reactionary sectors of extremist evangelical Christianity as well as far right elements of the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States.

Trump is a fitting partner for Netanyahu, who of course has praised the U.S. move to the skies.  Trump’s actions support Netanyahu’s adherence to the “Greater Israel” concept which threatens to put an end to any kind of two state solution.

The Trump action also reveals once again his vicious prejudice against Arabs and Muslims, recently on display with his “re-tweeting” of hate messages from a fascist organization, Britain First, in the United Kingdom, and by his continuing efforts to keep people from a number of mostly Muslim countries from traveling to the United States, even when they have relatives here.

The Communist Party USA denounces this new provocation, and calls upon the people of the United States to protest against it, including by contacting the White House, the State Department and our Congressional Representatives to demand a return to the peace process and the goal of a two state solution with full rights for the Palestinian people.

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