REACTIONS TO TRUMP’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF DECEMBER 6, 2017
❶ UN Security Council called for urgent meeting on Jerusalem
❷ Trump’s move on Jerusalem: Is this the end of US diplomacy in the Middle East?
❸ Trump just ‘pushed the two-state solution over the cliff’
❹ LIVE: Palestinians continue protests against Trump decision
❺ British prime minister says US decision on Jerusalem ‘unhelpful’ for peace
❻ World Council of Churches concerned over US move on Jerusalem

Background: “Future Scenarios for the Old City of Jerusalem.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture.

OF ANCILLARY INTEREST
❶ In article on Jerusalem, New York Times falsifies history of 1948, 1967
❷ Jared Kushner Omitted Leading a Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements
❸ ICC ‘Made Significant Progress’ in Prosecuting Israel For War Crimes
Poetry by Samih Al-Qasim

FURTHER READING ON JERUSALEM AND THE U.S. (a list of additional recent publications)

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❶ UN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLED FOR URGENT MEETING ON JERUSALEM
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― Eight members of the 15-member United Nations Security Council called for an urgent meeting for the council to discuss US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, according to media reports.
___The two permanent Security Council members, Britain and France, along with Sweden, Italy, Egypt, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Senegal have called for the urgent meeting, which is expected to be held on Friday.     MORE . . .
❷ TRUMP’S MOVE ON JERUSALEM: IS THIS THE END OF US DIPLOMACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO
Dec. 7, 2017 ― Finally, US President Donald Trump pulled the plug.
___The so-called peace process, two-state solution, “land-for-peace formula” and all the other tired clichés have been long dead and decomposing. But Trump’s announcement yesterday to officially recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel has also laid to rest the illusion that the US was ever keen on achieving a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours.
___What is left to be said by those who have placed the Palestinian national project of liberation on hold for nearly three decades, waiting for the US to fulfill its self-designated role of an “honest peace broker”?
___The Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a “day of rage” in response to Trump’s announcement. Way to deflect attention from the real crisis at hand: the fact that the PA has miserably failed by leasing the fate of Palestine to Washington, and, by extension to Israel as well.   MORE . . .
❸ TRUMP JUST ‘PUSHED THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION OVER THE CLIFF’
Mondoweiss Editors
Dec. 6, 2017 ― Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and getting architects busy on designing the new U.S. embassy represents a special new challenge for supporters of the two-state solution. While Trump gave lip service to such an outcome, his moves are such a rebuke to Palestinians and their Arab neighbors that they have destroyed any credibility the U.S. claimed to have as a broker and made it impossible for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with the United States– even mainstream analysts said on the cable news networks today.
___The move is meant to “appease” big donors such as Sheldon Adelson as well as evangelical Christians, Marc Ginsberg, a former ambassador to Morocco, said angrily on MSNBC. Trump, he said, “pushed the two state solution over the cliff.” And put “a knife in the back of the Palestinian leadership.” MORE . . .
❹ LIVE: PALESTINIANS CONTINUE PROTESTS AGAINST TRUMP DECISION
Palestine News Network – PNN
Dec. 7, 2017 ― Following Trump’s decision to move the American embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, Palestinians all over the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem carried out protests at contact points, while Israeli Occupation Forces responded with teargas and sound grenades.
___Palestinians took the streets of Bethlehem at the 300 military checkpoint, where hundreds carried out a protest and clashes broke out (VIDEO).   MORE . . .
❺ BRITISH PRIME MINISTER SAYS US DECISION ON JERUSALEM ‘UNHELPFUL’ FOR PEACE
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement late Wednesday that she views the decision by the United States President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as unhelpful to peacemaking in the region.
___“We disagree with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement. We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it,” May said in a press statement.     MORE . . .
❻ WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES CONCERNED OVER US MOVE ON JERUSALEM
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Dec. 6, 2017 ― World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed grave concern on Wednesday over US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.     ___“Such a step breaks with the longstanding international consensus, and almost seven decades of established American policy, that the status of Jerusalem remains to be settled,” stated Tveit. “It also pre-empts a negotiated resolution of this most difficult issue in any final peace agreement, which must be achieved between Israelis and Palestinians themselves.”     MORE . . .

Nasrallah, Rami.
“FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR THE OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM.”
Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, vol. 21, no. 4, Mar. 2016, pp. 49-56.
[. . . .] The current Israeli approach to encroachment and domination of the Old City and its “Holy Basin” surroundings differs from the manner in which they have dealt with East Jerusalem neighborhoods outside the ancient walls. There they sought to consolidate certain neighborhoods and to divide others on demographic grounds in order to capitalize on the Clintonian principle: “Where there are Israelis belongs to Israel; where there are Palestinians belongs to the Palestinians.” In contrast, in the Old City the Israelis have had an unprecedented interest in centralization. They seek to make the ancient center the heart of the Israeli state and the Jewish people. This goal has been positioned by numerous Israeli governments, including the current administration, as beyond compromise. However, in order to move forward from this stalemate and the inherent risks of the worst case scenario, it is necessary to seek new ideas that draw concessions horn both parties. Of the many scenarios reviewed in this chapter, the one that proffers the greatest progress embraces Israeli and Palestinian cooperation and integration under an international regime. COMPLETE ARTICLE . . .

OF ANCILLARY INTEREST
❶ IN ARTICLE ON JERUSALEM, NEW YORK TIMES FALSIFIES HISTORY OF 1948, 1967
The Electronic Intifada
Michael F. Brown
Dec. 6, 2017 ― A New York Times article published Tuesday about the history of Jerusalem maintains, “It is perhaps fitting that President Trump appears to have chosen this week to announce that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
___The writers, Sewell Chan, Irit Pazner Garshowitz, Mona Boshnaq and Gaia Tripoli, base this outlook on the fact that in “December 1917 – 100 years ago this month – the British general Edmund Allenby seized control of Jerusalem from its Ottoman Turkish defenders.”
___President Donald Trump likely knows little to nothing of this history. He was not thinking about the past century, but about continuing his disruptive track record and enmity toward Muslims.
___The authors then make clear their own tenuous grasp of the region’s history. ___They write: “...