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Jerusalem
Title		Description	Date
Israeli Soldiers Abduct Thirteen Palestinians, Demolish Two Buildings, In Silwan		IMEMC - "Media sources in Silwan said the soldiers stormed and ransacked dozens of homes in the town." - id	27/12/2017
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The Power Politics Behind Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration		Raja Shehadeh - The New Yorker ". It is unlikely that the Israeli Cabinet carefully discussed the pros and cons of this declaration. More likely, it was another example of events being driven by power politics. Netanyahu, threatened with looming corruption cases, needed to boost his popularity. The declaration may, at best, extend his hold on power for another few years. On the other side of the world, an obdurate U.S. President was eager to please his wealthy donors and his political base, particularly evangelicals. Surely, neither politician is a statesman and neither is thinking of the good of his country." ca	30/12/2017
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Did Trump’s Jerusalem decision revive support for Palestine?		Daoud Kuttab - Al-Monitor - Palestinians and their supporters have clearly put aside, temporarily, their differences to stand up for Jerusalem. The big question that remains is whether this is a temporary emotional outburst or whether it can be leveraged to improve the lot of Jerusalemites and improve the Palestinian negotiating position.-rh	20/12/2017
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Jerusalem: The Straw that Breaks the Empire’s Back?		Peter Koenig - Dissident Voice - When President Trump on 6 December 2017 declared unilaterally Jerusalem as the capital of Israel to where the US Embassy shall relocate, he violated UN Resolutions, international law, common sense and went against all diplomatic efforts to eventually bring peace to the region, not to speak about 130 countries that have already voiced opposition to such a decision. And this, before the Peace Process is coming to an end, at which point the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords would play out. They are also called the Road Map for Peace, between Palestine and Israel, which foresees a two-state solution and accordingly a mutual decision on Jerusalem becoming the capital city for both Palestine and Israel. These Oslo Peace Accords are still valid today.-rh	20/12/2017
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Trump: Kotel Must Be Part of Israel in Peace Deal		Richard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - "So when, if ever, would the Palestinians get their capital?  At some undetermined time in the future, depending on their behaving well and dropping to their knees and thanking ‘massas’ Bibi and Trump for their goodness and kindness?  I can see this going over exceedingly well with the Palestinian street." - id	19/12/2017
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US-outnumbered 14-to-1 as it vetoes UN vote on Jerusalem		The Guardian - A UN security council resolution calling for the withdrawal of Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has been backed by every council member except the US, which used its veto. The unanimity of the rest of the council was a stark rebuke to the Trump administration over its unilateral move earlier this month, which upended decades of international consensus.The UK and France had indicated in advance that they would back the text, which demanded that all countries comply with pre-existing UNSC resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.[ak]	18/12/2017
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How Mike Pence`s Mideast Trip to Help Embattled Christians Evolved Into a Visit Devoid of Christians		Judy Maltz - Haaretz - When Vice President Pence originally announced his visit to the Middle East, it was supposed to be a show of solidarity with Christian communities in the region suffering from persecution. Yet now, Pence will not be meeting any Christians or visiting any Churches in the Middle East. Pence’s scheduled trip to Bethlehem – birthplace of Jesus and one of the most important sites in Christianity – has been called off, as has his meeting with the leader of the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt. Pence is well- known for his links with Evangelicals in the US, and this played an important role in Pence strongly supporting President Trump`s declaring Jerusalem to be Israel`s Capital. Yet the same Jerusalem Declaration caused Pence to be highly unwelcome to Palestinian and Egyptian Christians... [ak]	18/12/2017
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Abbas spokesman: We will not accept changes to 1967 East Jerusalem borders		Ma`an - Abu Rudeinah’s speech, according to official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency, was allegedly in response to statements attributed to a White House official saying that the US considers the Wailing or Western Wall - which Muslims refer to as Al-Buraq Wall -- as part of Israel. [bz]	18/12/2017
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UN Security Council to vote on rejecting US Jerusalem decision		Times of Israel - The Egyptian draft resolution, due to be voted on, does not explicitly mention the US or Trump`s statement on Jerusalem being the Capital of Israel. Rather, the text stresses that Jerusalem is an issue “to be resolved through negotiations”, expresses “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem” and states that “any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded”. Still, the intent is clear enough, and the US is virtually certain to veto it. The strategy of the Palestinians and their supporters is to gain as much support by other Security Council Members, so as to isolate Trump and Netanyahu, and then move the issue to the Assembly General, where the Us has no veto and where it would be passed by a huge majority. [ak]	18/12/2017
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Jerusalem: whose very own and golden city?		Philippe Rekacewicz & Dominique Vidal - Le Monde Diplomatique "As much Palestinian land as possible with the smallest possible number of Palestinians: that is the long-standing principle governing the route of the wall, which incorporates Jewish settlements and removes Arab districts to the West Bank: Kufr Aqab, alongside the Qalandiya refugee camp, half of Beit Hanina, most of Al-Ram, Dahiyat al-Bared, Hizma, the Shuafat refugee camp, Dahiyat al-Salam, Anata, Ram Khamzi and Walaja. For the first time, 60,000 of Jerusalem’s 240,000 Palestinians have been expelled without even moving, resulting in a series of losses." ca	16/12/2017
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Tencent, Singulato, Cancel Visits to Israel Following Jerusalem Travel Warning		Amarelle Wenkert and Orr Hirschauge - The Calcalist - Business delegations from Japan and China canceled planned visits to Israel this week due to safety concerns following a Wednesday announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump stating the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The announcement drew criticism from world leaders, and was followed by protests in Israel and elsewhere. -rh	13/12/2017
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The many casualties of Trump`s Jerusalem move		Ishaan Tharoor - The Washington Post - And while Trump insists the move is critical to "advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement," it appears to have had exactly the opposite result. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to skip a meeting with Vice President Pence, who will be journeying to the Holy Land before Christmas. Pence will also be snubbed in Cairo by the head of Egypt`s Coptic Church as a result of Trump`s decision. French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have said they are jointly working to persuade the White House to reconsider. Meanwhile, protests continued in Palestinian areas and a number of Middle Eastern and Muslim-world capitals over the weekend. At least four people have been killed following Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday, demonstrators in Beirut clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy; at least eight people were hospitalized in the aftermath.	13/12/2017
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Over 130 Jewish Studies Scholars Criticize Trump’s Jerusalem Decision		JTA -The Forward - More than 130 Jewish Studies scholars have signed a statement expressing “dismay” over U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The statement criticizes the Trump administration’s “decision to reverse decades of bipartisan U.S. policy by declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and authorizing the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv, outside of a negotiated political framework that ends the legal state of occupation and ensures respect for the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to Jerusalem.”.-rh	13/12/2017
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After Jerusalem, the US Can No Longer Pretend to Be an Honest Broker of Peace : But that might not be a bad thing.		Rashid Khalidi - The Nation - Every dark cloud has a silver lining. The torrent of complex problems that Donald Trump has unleashed by his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will plague United States policy and Middle East peace-making for many years. You cannot un- recognize a capital once you have recognized it. Whatever caveats he may offer, Trump has effectively accepted Israel’s annexation of vast swaths of the occupied West Bank into greater Jerusalem, and its declaration of this entire zone as its “eternal undivided capital.”-rh	13/12/2017
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Jerusalem Is (Is Not) the Capital of Israel		RICHARD FALK - Global Justice in the 21st century - The harm done by the Trump initiative on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and declared intention to start the process of moving the embassy is impossible to assess fully at this time. Whether there will be an upsurge in resistance violence, political extremism, anti- American terrorism, and wider warfare is now essentially unknowable, although the stage has been recklessly arranged so that these developments seem more likely to occur than earlier, and if they do, will be treated as outcomes of Trump’s faulty diplomacy.-rh	13/12/2017
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Jerusalem protests bring global attention to Israeli brutality		Maureen Clare Murphy - Rights and Accountability - EI - "Videos and photos showing the brutality of Israel’s occupation are streaming out of Palestine and circulating across the world as protests against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem raged on for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday." - id	13/12/2017
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Jerusalem, the Capital of Apartheid		Ran HaCohen - AntiWar - “Since the fall of the South African Apartheid in 1994, no capital – in fact, no other city on the globe – has been divided into 60% first-class full citizens and 40% second-class ‘residents’. Precisely this, however, is the essence of `united` Jerusalem” [ry]	11/12/2017
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Video: Israeli crackdown brings protests in Jerusalem to standstill		Harry Fawcett - Al Jazeera - "Protests over the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel`s capital have largely stopped in the city, after a heavy Israeli crackdown. Israeli authorities carried out extensive ID checks and cracked down on any use of the Palestinian flag" [ry]	11/12/2017
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Jerusalemites will be the ones to pay the price for Trump`s decision		Yehudit Oppenheimer - +972 "Trump’s declaration has already caused great damage, but it will not change the fact that two nations live and will continue to live in Jerusalem, and that any solution will need to take into consideration the interests of both peoples and their connections to the city." ca	8/12/2017
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Abbas urges UN to stop Trump from recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli capital		Ma`an News Agency - "Abbas, the King of Jordan, and several other world leaders warned of dangerous consequences and instability in the region if Trump follows through with the announcement...If implemented, the move would be seen as the first step to a drastic abdication of longstanding US policy that has largely adhered to international standards on Israel-Palestine, which maintains that East Jerusalem is an intricate part of occupied Palestinian territory and the capital of any future Palestinian state, despite Israel’s annexation of the territory." ca	8/12/2017
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Oh Jerusalem: Requiem for the two-state solution		Omar Karmi - Electronic Intifada "(Trump said the two parties) must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable.” While few Palestinians doubted this anyway, some held out hope that simply through the force of moral persuasion, sympathy for the underdog, legality and in the interests of international order, someone, somewhere in Washington would listen, eventually." ca	8/12/2017
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Protests across the West Bank and Jerusalem attacked by Israeli military; 50 injured		IMEMEC- "Following Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that Jerusalem is an Israeli city, effectively denying the rights of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have lived there since time immemorial, protests erupted in cities and towns across the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip." CA	8/12/2017
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East Jerusalem ‘Must Be Recognized as Capital of Independent Palestine,’ Insists PA		The Palestine Chronicle - Any just solution [for the Israeli- Palestinian conflict] must recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state, a spokesman of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on Friday.“Tension and chaos will continue dominating the region and the world as long as the Palestinian issue remains unresolved,” Nabil Abu-Rudeineh told Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency, adding: “The international legitimacy, which recognized the state of Palestine in the UN General Assembly on November 29, 2012 and delegitimized the occupation, will alone create an appropriate atmosphere for resolving all the crises in the region and regain the balance of US-Arab relations.”-rh	6/12/2017
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Israeli forces detain 17 Palestinains overnight from West Bank, East Jerusalem		Ma`an - In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces detained five Palestinians, according to locals. In the Shufat Refugee camp, Israeli forces detained three Palestinians. They were identified as Nizar Muhammad Ali, Ammar Abu al-Saad, and Zaki Muhammad Ali. Another resident of the camp, identified as Ahmad al-Rajabi, was detained by israeli forces while he was walking on Salah al-Din Street near the Old City late Monday night. Also on Monday night, Israeli forces detained Moussa Jamal Qadamani after shooting and injuring him with live fire during clashes in the al-Suwwana neighborhood of East Jerusalem. [bz]	12/12/2017
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Pence Prepares Mideast Visit, but neither Palestinian leaders nor Christian groups want him		Jack Khoury - Haaretz - "The United States has crossed all the red lines with the Jerusalem decision" said President Abbas` diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khaldi. Therefore, Abbas is not going to meet U.S. Vice President Pence who arrives in the region next week. Originally, Palestinian Christians intended to meet Pence, who is close to American Christian Evangelical groups, and present to him their views as being "the original Christians, the first ones". However, these Palestinian Christians were also offended by Pence supporting Trump`s "Jerusalem Declaration". "We see Pence standing behind Trump as he announced Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and saying this not political, or legal or even security based, but this is Biblical and this about the ordain of God . If you believe you know His will then it shuts the discussion" said Palestinian adviser Husam Zomlot. Now, there will be no Pence meeting with Christians in Bethlehem, either. [ak]	12/12/2017
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Jerusalem Explained		Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch - “There was always a contrast between Jerusalem as a small shabby city and its status as a great symbolic centre for three religions. It seemed to be dwarfed by its history” [ry]	11/12/2017
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Trump`s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel`s capital is politically dangerous and morally egregious		Yousef Munayyer - US Campaign for Palestinian Rights - Trump has just upended decades of US foreign policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This effectively hands Israel a blank political check for its illegal annexation of Jerusalem and legitimizes Israel’s ongoing displacement and disenfranchisement of the city’s Palestinian residents. Trump’s move is politically dangerous, and morally egregious.-rh	6/12/2017
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Trump Denounced for `Reckless, Irresponsible` Decision to Move US Embassy to Jerusalem		Jessica Corbett - truthout - Critics warned of violent consequences and immediately condemned President Donald Trump on Tuesday after it was reported he told regional leaders the US will recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel and relocate the US Embassy in the coming months.-rh	6/12/2017
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TRUMP’S CHANGE OF US POLICY ON JERUSALEM UNDERMINES PEACE EFFORTS, COULD LEAD TO VIOLENCE		J Street - President Trump’s announcement today that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is an unhelpful step with no tangible benefits, only serious risks. Contradicting decades of bipartisan presidential policy, it does nothing to advance, and could seriously undermine, the administration’s stated commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while potentially threatening Israel’s security and alienating Arab regional partners.- rh	6/12/2017
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Donald Trump’s Jerusalem statement is an act of diplomatic arson		Jonathan Freedland - The Guardian - ot content with taking the US to the brink of nuclear conflict with North Korea, Donald Trump is now set to apply his strategy of international vandalism to perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical hotspot in the world. With a speech scheduled for later today that’s expected to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and reaffirm a pledge to move the US embassy to the city, he is walking into a bone-dry forest with a naked flame.-rh	6/12/2017
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Trump`s dangerous Jerusalem gambit		Daoud Kuttab - Al-Jazeera - "But while the US has always been pro-Israel, it tried, at least in theory, to adhere to international law and the worldwide consensus while dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." - id	6/12/2017
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Absent in the clamor about Jerusalem are the Palestinians of Jerusalem		Samer Badawi - +972 - "In Arab capitals speculation turns to panic about Trump’s expected reversal of policy on Jerusalem. Meanwhile, nobody seems to be talking about — or to — the Palestinians of Jerusalem, whose daily reality of occupation will remain irrespective of what comes next." - id	6/12/2017
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Trump’s Jerusalem Plan Unravels		Richard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - "For a reason known only to the Mind of Trump, he announced last Friday that he would tell the world on Wednesday that the U.S. would relocate its embassy to Jerusalem and henceforth recognize the holy city as the capital of Israel. If he released this policy announcement as a way to test the waters, it went over like a lead balloon." - id	6/12/2017
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Tensions mount over Trump`s Jerusalem brinkmanship		The Guardian - In an act of brinkmanship over one of the Middle East’s most fraught issues, President Trump appears to have missed a deadline for signing a waiver on a US law requiring its embassy to be moved to Jerusalem. This does not automatically mean that the Embassy would now be moved, but it does increase the tension and uncertainty. Either moving the Embassy or declaring a US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel`s capital would have serious repercussions in the Middle East and likely abort altogether the Middle East diplomatic initiative which Trump was supposed to launch in the near future. The Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, The Arab League, Turkey, the EU and French President Macron have all warned Trump against unilaterally determining the status of Jerusalem. However, as usual with this President, no one - not even Trump himself - knows what he is going to do. [ak]	5/12/2017
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Raised to rebel		Budour Youssef Hassan - Electronic Intifada "The occupied East Jerusalem suburb of Issawiyeh has long been a flashpoint for confrontations between Israeli soldiers and its Palestinian residents.But even by Israel’s repressive standards, the crackdown to which the town has been subjected over the past three years has been extreme...The Issawi family is as deeply engaged in this grassroots resistance effort as any in Issawieyh. Tareq, 77, and Layla Issawi, 70, have a large family. Six of their children – Rafaat, Medhat, Samer, Firas, Shireen and Shadi – have been imprisoned by Israel at different times; another, Fadi, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers when he was 16." ca	3/12/2017
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