Al Jazeera News :
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv has reignited the Palestinian cause, according to analysts.
Breaking with years of US policy, Trump announced the move on December 6, drawing international condemnation and sparking a wave of heated protests around the world.
No country currently has its embassy in Jerusalem.
The status of Jerusalem has long remained a sensitive topic and one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Trump’s decision has “touched the nerve of the Arab people and the backbone of the international law”, said Salman Abu Sitta, chairman of the Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad.
“The declaration has ignited the people’s feelings about Palestine and Jerusalem as its symbol, but it also exposed those who ran into the despicable position of the so-called normalisation,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from Kuwait.
Jerusalem, home to holy religious sites, has particular significance for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
West Jerusalem was seized by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from historic Palestine, referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe) when Israel was officially founded.
Israel subsequently occupied and annexed the eastern part of the city after its military victory in the 1967 war, but its control over East Jerusalem has never been recognised by the international community.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv has reignited the Palestinian cause, according to analysts.
Breaking with years of US policy, Trump announced the move on December 6, drawing international condemnation and sparking a wave of heated protests around the world.
No country currently has its embassy in Jerusalem.
The status of Jerusalem has long remained a sensitive topic and one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Trump’s decision has “touched the nerve of the Arab people and the backbone of the international law”, said Salman Abu Sitta, chairman of the Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad.
“The declaration has ignited the people’s feelings about Palestine and Jerusalem as its symbol, but it also exposed those who ran into the despicable position of the so-called normalisation,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from Kuwait.
Jerusalem, home to holy religious sites, has particular significance for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
West Jerusalem was seized by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from historic Palestine, referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe) when Israel was officially founded.
Israel subsequently occupied and annexed the eastern part of the city after its military victory in the 1967 war, but its control over East Jerusalem has never been recognised by the international community.
