DONALD Trump is not a man known for his visionary foreign policy or global statesmanship.
The
US president has, in the short period he has occupied the White House,
made some incendiary decisions and statements that have threatened to
upend the international order. These include his intention to torpedo the widely acclaimed Iran nuclear deal, as well as threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea from the floor of the UN General Assembly.
On
Wednesday, Mr Trump added another dubious feather to his cap by issuing
a fiat on one of the most divisive, and sensitive, global issues of the
modern age: the status of Jerusalem.
Overturning decades of American policy regarding the holy, and contested, city, Mr Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He also said preparations were under way to shift the American embassy from Tel Aviv to what the Arabs refer to as Al Quds.
With this decision, not only has the US president
disregarded global opinion on the matter — the UN secretary general has
led the criticism — and brushed aside the advice of some of America’s
closest allies, in one fell swoop, Mr Trump has also legitimised five
decades of Israeli occupation.
The US leader has played to a very narrow gallery here — the Israelis, the American religious right as well as the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, that powerful group whose ‘blessings’ every politician in the US desirous of high office seeks.
The
rest of the world, meanwhile, has been highly critical of the move, led
by the Palestinians. Both leading Palestinian factions, Fatah and
Hamas, have slammed the decision, with protests breaking out in the
occupied territories. The reaction from Arab and Muslim capitals, as
well as other states, has also been highly critical.
While
Palestinians have rued the day Israel was created in 1948 and they were
doomed to a seemingly permanent exile from their native land,
Jerusalem’s status as an occupied city has been accepted by almost the
entire global community ever since Israel grabbed it in 1967. Al Quds
lies at the heart of Palestinian identity and for the US to ‘gift’ the
contested city to Israel is almost certain to doom the two-state
solution.
As per the 1993 peace accords, the final
status of Jerusalem was to be resolved mutually. That agreement, it
seems, no longer holds.
So what now? While Israeli
leaders have been gloating over the move, the occupied territories are
brimming with discontent. There have been many predictions of a ‘third
intifada’ being launched; this reckless move by the US leader may well
be the spark that gives birth to this uprising. Humiliated by Israel for
decades and treated in a subhuman manner, now the Palestinians are
seeing a city central to their culture and identity being snatched away
from them.
While there is not much room for optimism,
perhaps the global community can pressure the US to revisit this highly
unwise and dangerous move.