PASOS condemns US President’s decision of accepting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

Monday, December 11, 2017

Recently, the President of the USA, Donald Trump announced that the embassy of the USA in Tel Aviv, Israel will be moved to Jerusalem recognizing it as the capital of Israel. As predictable, this has created outrage in the whole world especially in Middle East. We condemn the US President’s move as it drags the Middle East region’s peace to a more vulnerable state.

Jerusalem has a very long and a controversial history. The city hosts historically important monuments and sites related to three religions; Christianity, Judaism and Islam and people of several ethnicities and nationalities. For decades, though both Israel and Palestine claimed the city as each country’s capital, United Nations and all governments, including the USA until her recent announcement, did not recognize these claims and did not locate diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. Not only that knowing Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after 1967 war all the UN resolutions has accepted East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine with 1967 boarders.

Recent USA administration’s acceptance of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel distances the hope of peace building between Israel and Palestine and disqualifies USA again as a so called “peace broker” in future. We condemn USA administration’s decision strongly and demand immediate recognition of Palestine as a full Member of United Nations.

Bimal Rathnayake
President
Peace and Solidarity Organization of Sri Lanka (PASOS) – A member of World Peace Council (WPC)
2017-12-09