Palestinian officials call for protests in mosques to object to the proposed move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and say it would violate Oslo peace agreements

Senior Palestinian officials have warned that the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s recognition of Israel – one of the key pillars of the moribund Oslo peace agreements – is in danger of being revoked if Donald Trump moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership is also calling for protests in mosques and churches on Friday and Sunday to object to the move, calling for opposition to the plan “from Pakistan to Tehran, from Lebanon to Oman”.

Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is highly contentious as it would recognise Israel’s exclusive claim to the city, most of which was annexed illegally after the 1967 war. The Palestinians also see it as their future capital.

Moving US embassy to Jerusalem could provoke violent 'chaos', experts warn Read more

Senior Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told reporters on Tuesday that any move to relocate the US embassy would provoke a reaction. “One of the measures we are considering seriously is the issue of mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel. [It] is not valid any more doing this,” he said referring to the proposed embassy move.

The warning came amid increasingly stark warnings over the risk of an “explosion of violence” in the region if the US embassy is moved, and after Abbas himself wrote to Trump to reconsider, citing the dangers in the move.



In his letter – disclosed on Monday and also copied to other world leaders – Abbas told Trump moving the embassy “will likely have [a] disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region, since Israel’s decision to annex East Jerusalem contradicts with international law”.

The comments came after the officials said they had been told by diplomatic contacts that Trump may be preparing to announce the relocation of the US embassy during his inauguration speech on 20 January. CNN reported on Monday that Trump’s transition team had told “allies” that it plans to go ahead with the relocation.

That fear follows the introduction of new legislation in Congress a week ago by three Republican Senators, including Ted Cruz, demanding the embassy be located in Jerusalem.



Palestinians have also been alarmed by Trump’s appointment of figures who have supported Jewish settlement building in the occupied territories.



That includes Trump’s proposed new ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who has questioned the two-state solution, and most recently Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose family charity has given money to one of the West Bank’s most hardline settlements.

Friedman himself – an extreme rightwinger who has compared liberal US Jews to kapos or concentration camp guards chosen from among the prisoners – made clear on his appointment that he looked forward to taking up his post in Jerusalem.

Donald Trump's Israel ambassador is hardline pro-settler lawyer Read more

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, had floated the idea of revoking recognition of Israel at a conference in Washington last month, a proposal that has gained momentum ahead of a peace conference in Paris on Sunday on the Middle East peace process.

Briefing journalists on diplomatic moves ahead of that gathering of some 70 countries in the French capital, Shtayyeh reinforced recent statements by other senior Palestinian politicians and warned that the two-state solution would not be able to survive a move by the Trump administration that would be seen in the Arab world as a unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Shtayyeh also suggested that such a move would also be a breach of US commitments under the 1995 Oslo peace agreement. “The US is a witness to the Oslo agreement, signed in the White House in front of President Clinton. This is an international commitment.”

While Palestinian officials had been careful to be diplomatic following Trump’s election, in recent weeks they have become more and more explicit about their concerns.



Asked about officials in Trump’s team who would deal with the Israeli-Palestinian question, Shtayyeh was pessimistic.

“The indications are negative,” Shtayyeh said of Trump’s recent appointments, adding: “If Trump moves the [US] embassy to Jerusalem that would be the end of the two-state solution. Trump would be giving away something that is not his to give.”

Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian leadership had received warnings that Trump might announce the relocation on inauguration days from “American circles and diplomatic friends”.

Shtayyeh’s remarks came following the leak of the draft resolution text to be considered in Paris on Sunday, which suggests participants will be asked to bind themselves to opposing any unilateral moves on changing Israel’s pre-1967 borders, including on the final status of Jerusalem that was left to be negotiated after the Oslo peace accords were signed.



The draft text – leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz – suggests that moves that began with the adoption by the UN security council of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement building, seem set to continue right up to Trump’s inauguration.

The US embassy has been located on Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon Street for half a century. US state department policy has long held that the status of Jerusalem will only be determined in final talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Although the US Congress passed a law ordering the move to Jerusalem in 1995, every president since then has exercised a six-month waiver to prevent it taking place, usually citing “national security concerns”.

The Palestinian comments also join warnings from other international officials in recent days alerting to the dangers in moving the American embassy.

A Jordanian government spokesman warned last week that the move would have “catastrophic implications on several levels, including the regional situation” warning it could also affect bilateral relations with the US.

On Friday, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, echoed that view in an interview with CBS, warning that the plan, outlined by Trump on the campaign trail and reiterated by members of his team since, could cause an “an explosion, an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank, and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region”.

Kerry also warned that It would “have profound impact on the readiness of Jordan and Egypt to be able to be supportive and engaged with Israel as they are today”, he warned.

