Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would destroy Palestine’s hopes of justice
Three Republican senators have introduced a bill to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there, challenging US president-elect Donald Trump to fulfil his pledge to do so as soon as he gets into office.
However, while other presidential candidates, including Bill Clinton and George W Bush, also promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, they backed away once in office and deferred implementation of the 1995 congressional Jerusalem Embassy Act, which recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital and calls for relocating the US embassy there.
In fact, the world does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over either west or East Jerusalem. This is why not a single country has an embassy in there. If it did, it would be violating international law as well as United Nations security council resolution 478. The resolution confirmed that Israel’s 1980 “basic law” which declared East and west Jerusalem “complete and united” as the capital of Israel, is “a violation of international law”.
