Israelis and Palestinians worry about what new trouble might follow president’s move to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

In the driving rain of a Jerusalem winter storm, the site suggested as a potential location for a future US embassy in one of the world’s most contested cities isn’t much to look at it.

Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move US embassy Read more

Sandwiched between two busy roads in north Talpiot district in the west of the city, it is a scrubby area of dirt punctuated with litter and a few trees.

Unprepossessing as it is, this plot is the most visible symbol of a controversy threatening to disrupt the Middle East after Donald Trump said he was directing the US state department to begin preparations to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the city.

The location of a barracks during the British mandate, the site was later an Israeli police base before being rented on a peppercorn, 99-year lease to the US government for $1 a year.



In a city of deep divisions – claimed as a capital by both Israelis and Palestinians – this plot has suddenly found itself on a dangerous fracture line splitting not only Palestinians and Israelis, but the Middle East and international diplomatic opinion that for five decades has avoided recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital alone.

Q&A Why is recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital so contentious? Show Hide Of all the issues at the heart of the enduring conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, none is as sensitive as the status of Jerusalem. The holy city has been at the centre of peace-making efforts for decades. Seventy years ago, when the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Jerusalem was defined as a separate entity under international supervision. In the war of 1948 it was divided, like Berlin in the cold war, into western and eastern sectors under Israeli and Jordanian control respectively. Nineteen years later, in June 1967, Israel captured the eastern side, expanded the city’s boundaries and annexed it – an act that was never recognised internationally. Israel routinely describes the city, with its Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy places, as its “united and eternal” capital. For their part, the Palestinians say East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state. The unequivocal international view, accepted by all previous US administrations, is that the city’s status must be addressed in peace negotiations. Recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital puts the US out of step with the rest of the world, and legitimises Israeli settlement-building in the east – considered illegal under international law. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP

On Wednesday, as Trump delivered his speech, Jerusalem had never felt more divided and anxious.



In the conference hall and corridors of the city’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, where the Jerusalem Post was holding its annual diplomatic conference, Israeli ministers and leading political figures appeared exhilarated by the news.



Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, avoided mentioning the embassy issue but had rarely seemed more pleased, boasting about Israel’s diplomatic victories under his tutelage even as Middle Eastern leaders were delivering dire warnings about the repercussions of the embassy move.

Others, however, did not dodge the issue. “This is also the time for the entire world to recognise united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Policies should not be dictated by threats and intimidation,” said Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid, a centre-left opposition party. “If violence is the only argument against moving the embassy to Jerusalem then it only proves it is the right thing to do. Now is the time to do what is right.”

Outside of the Waldorf’s swish corridors, however, others were questioning the potential cost of a move that is alarming many on both sides – even those who believe the move is overdue.

Among them was Aviad Kleinberg, writing in the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.



“There is a good chance that this recognition, which is reasonable and justified in and of itself, will spark – if done separately from a peace agreement – waves of violence around the world. People will be killed. Is that justified?” he said.

Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, too has warned of the risk of renewed violence in the city and the West Bank, while European embassies have warned visitors to avoid demonstrations and gatherings.

And the complexities of Jerusalem, the reality of which seems to have gone above Trump’s head, are summed up by neighbourhoods like Shuafat refugee camp – the only one inside the city limits. Part of the Jerusalem municipality, Shuafat, is on the other side of the Israeli separation wall.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Palestinian women walk past an Israeli police officer standing guard at Damascus gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA

In Shuafat, the speech changed everything. In a social club in the heart of the camp, young Palestinian men were playing snooker and cards in the minutes before Trump’s televised speech.

The speech – translated into Arabic – was watched intensely and at first largely in silence, with the television tuned to a Palestinian channel with a new logo declaring “Jerusalem is ours”.

“He’s saying he’s going to move the embassy,” added Hamdi Dyab, incredulous and growing more agitated by the minute. “This is very dangerous speech. Things don’t look good. We are calling for a new intifada. Now we can’t accept a two-state solution. We wanted Palestine from the sea to the Jordan river!”

Why would moving the US embassy to Jerusalem be so contentious? Read more

Sheikh Abdullah Alqam, coordinator of a Jerusalem committee representing Palestinian factions in East Jerusalem – a leader during first intifada – also delivered a stark warning as Trump spoke.

“This will only encourage extremism. It will encourage Isis. Over one billion Muslims are asking why he is taking this step.”

Then there are the settlements inside Jerusalem’s boundaries – most unrecognised by the international community.



Some are simply houses occupied by settlers in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and Palestinian neighbourhoods in the east of the city.



Donald Trump’s Jerusalem statement is an act of diplomatic arson | Jonathan Freedland Read more

Others comprise whole districts, like Pisgat Ze’ev on the other side of the wall from the camp in Jerusalem’s east.

Among the shoppers in Pisgat Ze’ev’s sprawling mall on Wednesday were Miriam Barr and Natalya Yakoby, who although happy with Trump’s planned recognition were also nervous about what such an announcement might mean.

“We are happy he is talking about doing this. This is our country and of course we want Jerusalem to be recognised as the capital of Israel. But I am worried,” said Barr.

“We have young children. We made aliyah here from Russia,” explained Yakoby. “Our only thought is that our kids have a better life. And one of the kids in my son’s class was injured in an attack near here, though now he is OK.”

Was the recognition of Jerusalem by Trump worth the potential risk? Barr does not answer at first, but shakes her head slightly.



“They [the Palestinians] want us to give up more and more. But of course the best situation is peace.”



Driving back through the city, an hour after Trump had spoken, a sense of anticlimax pervaded in the city’s rain-wet Jewish neighbourhoods.



No car horns honked. Few people walked. No celebrations were visible. Only Israeli and US flags, paired and projected on the ancient walls of the Old City, suggested anything had changed.

