by Joe Dyke with Majeda El-Batsh in Jerusalem
Agence France Presse
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) — US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital sparked Palestinian protests, sporadic clashes and a call for a new intifada on Thursday as fears grew of fresh bloodshed in the region.
Trump’s announcement also prompted an almost universal diplomatic backlash, including warnings from Turkey, the European Union and Russia.
And a senior Palestinian official said US Vice President Mike Pence was “not welcome in Palestine” as the White House warned that cancelling a planned meeting between Pence and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas later this month would be “counterproductive.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, lavished praise on Trump, saying his name would now be associated with Jerusalem’s long history and urging other countries to follow his lead.
Israel’s military deployed hundreds more troops to the occupied West Bank amid uncertainty over the fallout, while sporadic clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces erupted in various areas.
In a speech in Gaza City, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya called for a new intifada, or uprising.
Within hours several projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.
One hit Israeli territory, prompting the army and air force to retaliate by targeting “two terror posts” in Gaza, it said, blaming Hamas, the enclave’s Islamist rulers.
Hamas has called for a “day of rage” against Trump’s decision after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday.
On Thursday demonstrations were held in West Bank cities including Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus, as well as in Gaza.
Israeli forces dispersed hundreds with tear gas at a checkpoint entrance to Ramallah, while the Palestinian Red Crescent reported 22 people wounded from live fire or rubber bullets in the West Bank.
Five Palestinians were wounded from Israeli fire in Gaza as dozens protested near the barrier sealing off the enclave from Israel, Gazan authorities said.
‘Darker times’
Trump’s defiant move — making good on a pledge from his 2016 presidential campaign — ends seven decades of US ambiguity on the status of the Holy City, claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.
Trump said it marks the start of a “new approach” to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump was “simply carrying out the will of the American people”.
But his willingness to part with international consensus on such a sensitive issue drew increasingly urgent warnings from around the world.
EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the decision could take the region “backwards to even darker times.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was “deeply concerned” and called for the Palestinians and Israel to “hold back” and renew negotiations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it would put the region in a “ring of fire.”
‘Not welcome’
Palestinian leaders were outraged.
A senior member of Abbas’s Fatah faction, Jibril Rajoub, said the Palestinian president would not meet Pence during his planned visit later this month as part of a regional tour.
“The American vice president is not welcome in Palestine. And President Abbas will not welcome him” in the wake of the US shift on Jerusalem, said Rajoub.
Abbas’s office could not be reached for comment, but the Palestinian president has said Trump disqualified the United Staes from its traditional role as a peace broker.
Abbas discussed the Jerusalem issue with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
In a joint statement, they said “any measure tampering with the legal and historical status of Jerusalem is invalid” and warned Trump’s decision would “have dangerous repercussions.”
In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, called for a mass demonstration on Monday “to protest and denounce this American aggression.”
Palestinian shops in east Jerusalem, including the Old City, as well as in the West Bank were largely shuttered and schools closed in answer to a general strike call.
“By this decision, America became a very small country, like any small country in the world, like Micronesia,” Salah Zuhikeh, 55, told AFP in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Trump’s move left many angry US allies struggling to find a diplomatic response.
Eight countries including Britain, France and Italy pressed for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in response, which was set for Friday.
Right-wing politics
Trump also kicked off the process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — keeping with another campaign promise dear to US evangelical Christian and right-wing Jewish voters.
His predecessors had made the same promise, but quickly reneged upon taking office.
Israel seized Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
The Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Several peace plans have unravelled in the past decades over the issue of how to divide sovereignty or oversee sites considered holy in Jerusalem.
The international community does not recognize the ancient city as Israel’s capital, insisting the issue can only be resolved in negotiations — a point reiterated by UN chief Antonio Guterres.
Guterres implicitly criticised Trump, stressing his opposition to “any unilateral measures that would jeopardise the prospect of peace.”
Trump insisted the move did not prejudge final talks, saying it simply reflected the reality that west Jerusalem is and will continue to be part of Israel under any settlement.
“The United States would support a two-state solution if agreed to by both sides,” Trump said, as he announced Vice President Mike Pence would travel to the region in coming days.
© Agence France-Presse
