The Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) and the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) severely condemn US President Donald Trump’s December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision which is both a blatant attack on the rights of the Palestinian people and a significant blow to the requirements for a just peace based on UN resolutions adopted by most countries and the overwhelming majority of peoples worldwide.

16-year-old Palestinian, Fawzi al-Juneidi, arrested for allegedly throwing stones during a protest in Hebron against US President Donald Trump’s declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, is marched by a full platoon of occupation soldiers to his place of incarceration. (Photo: Abdulhafiz al-Hashlamoun)

The US policy supporting Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories since 1967 can only lead to a resurgence of chaos and instability throughout the region and the world. The newly announced American policy regarding Jerusalem assures that the United States will continue to remain part of the problem, rather than serve as a positive factor in achieving a solution. There is no solution to the conflict other than ending the Israeli occupation and fulfilling the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination by establishing an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital and resolving the refugee issue in accord with UN General Assembly resolution 194.

Trump’s decision flies in the face of international law, UN Security Council resolutions, and global unanimity about Jerusalem’s being occupied territory. The newly declared policy of the US administration obliges us to mobilize our efforts to isolate, confront and utterly remove it from the agenda of the International community.

The tripartite alliance between US-led imperialism, illegal Zionist settlements and annexation fostered by the Israeli government, and the forces of reactionary Arab regimes is absolutely antithetical to the inalienable national and historical rights of the Palestinian people. The failure of this alliance’s plans in the region until now – in particular in Syria and Yemen – is spurring it on to play the Palestinian card for all its worth and extort the Palestinian leadership into surrendering to what Trump would have us believe is “the deal of the century.”

To confront this cynical alliance we need to both broaden and strengthen international solidarity with the cause of the Palestinian people and intensify pressure on the Israeli government of occupation. The PPP and CPI call upon all Communist and workers’ parties and all progressive and democratic forces around the world to escalate their struggle against the Israeli occupation, to increase their solidarity with and commitment to the Palestinian people and its legitimate rights, and to support a just and comprehensive peace in the region based on the respect of all peoples’ rights to live in freedom and independence.