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Update on Conflict and Diplomacy 16 NOVEMBER 2017–15 FEBRUARY 2018

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Update on Conflict and Diplomacy 16 NOVEMBER 2017–15 FEBRUARY 2018 Update on Conflict and Diplomacy 16 NOVEMBER 2017–15 FEBRUARY 2018 COMPILED BY PAUL KAROLYI This update is a summary of bilateral, multilateral, regional, and international events affecting the Palestinians and Israel. More than 100 print, wire, television, and online sources providing U.S., Israeli, Arab, and international independent and government coverage of unfolding events are surveyed to compile the quarterly Update. The most relevant sources are cited in JPS’s Chronology section, which tracks events day by day. JPS Chronologies are archived on the JPS website at www.palestine-studies.org. Highlights of the Quarter: Nearly every major action within Palestine and Israel this quarter is predicated on U.S. president Donald Trump’s pledges to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The decision provokes an international backlash, sparks a wave of protests and clashes in the occupied Palestinian territories, compromises U.S. diplomatic efforts, and encourages Israel to further advance settlement and annexation plans. While the Israelis celebrate Trump’s decision, the Palestinians argue that it illustrates Washington’s pro-Israel bias and refuse to accept the United States as the sole mediator in any future peace talks. Outraged, Trump orders punitive cuts to U.S. humanitarian aid dedicated to Palestinian refugees, further undercutting any peace initiative, which advisors insist is still underway. The Palestinians begin pursuing a new, multilateral framework to continue the peace process. Amid these developments, the Palestinian national reconciliation process stalls once again. Lastly, the arrest of teenage activist Ahed Tamimi causes an outpouring of support and casts the plight of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons into the spotlight worldwide. THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI support elsewhere. Israel’s right-wing CONFLICT government lauded Trump’s decision to With his peace initiative struggling to gain recognize Jerusalem, seizing the opportunity to traction, U.S. president Donald Trump fulfilled further alter the borders of the municipality of his campaign promise and recognized Jerusalem, strengthen the settlement enterprise, Jerusalem as Israel’s capital this quarter. The and implement new measures against the move enraged the Palestinians and pushed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Palestinian Authority (PA) to seek diplomatic movement. Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XLVII, No. 3 (Spring 2018), p. 135, ISSN: 0377-919X; electronic ISSN: 1533-8614. © 2018 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2018.47.3.135. Spring 2018 || 135 Update on Conflict and Diplomacy THE TRUMP INITIATIVE Department official told Israeli newspaper As the quarter opened, the Palestinians were Haaretz (11/17) that the move should not be increasingly frustrated with Trump, his peace interpreted as meaning the United States was envoys, and their biased approach to the backing off its work with the Palestinians. Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Ever since entering The Palestinians interpreted the message office in 1/2017, the U.S. administration had differently. A PA spokesperson described “ ” tacitly approved of Israeli government moves (11/18) the move as dangerous and “ to hasten settlement construction in the West unprecedented in the relationship between ” Bank, offering only a promise to work on a Washington and the Arab world. It was plan to restart final-status negotiations evidence that the United States was losing its between the Palestinians and Israelis. status as a fair mediator in the peace process, “ The Trump administration promised to and, he claimed, it delivered a prize for Israel, which is trying to thwart American efforts by deliver the plan in early 2018, but the continuing to build in the settlements and president was angered by the comments PA opposing the two-state solution.” Abbas warned president Mahmoud Abbas made at the the Trump administration that if the PLO’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Washington office were shuttered, he would meeting in 9/2017: In his UN speech, Abbas indefinitely suspend all Palestinian contacts stated, “[We] have called on the International with U.S. officials. Or, as PA foreign minister Criminal Court [ICC] to open an investigation Riyad al-Maliki put it on 11/18, the Palestinians and to prosecute Israeli officials for their would not give into “extortion.” He added, “The involvement in settlement activities and ball is now in the American court.” aggressions against our people.” Two months On 11/21, a State Department spokesperson later, the Associated Press reported that the said that U.S. officials were still discussing with State Department had informed the PA that their Palestinian counterparts the status of the the Washington office of the Palestinian PLO office in Washington as well as the larger Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation to issue of the “comprehensive peace process.” the United States would be closed unless the A PA official later confirmed that low-level Palestinians resumed peace talks with the contacts were ongoing, but al-Maliki refuted Israelis. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson alleged the broader claim. On 11/22, the Arab press ’ that Abbas s comments triggered a provision reported that Abbas had refused to take a phone in the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act call from Trump’s senior advisor and son-in- barring the operation of such an office if the law, Jared Kushner. Abbas reportedly referred “ Palestinians supported or took any action to Kushner to the PLO office in Washington. influence” an ICC investigation into Israeli war A week after the Associated Press report crimes. The Palestinians had been pursuing kicked off the controversy, the United States ICC action against Israel for years without any began to walk back its position. On 11/24, a U.S. invocation of the purported provision, State Department official announced that the and the State Department’s new interpretation PLO office would be allowed to remain open for of the law in question appeared to signal a new at least ninety more days. “The relevant statute phase in U.S.-Palestinian relations. As though provides that if, after ninety days, the President to dispel any such impression, a State determines the Palestinians are engaged in 136 || Journal of Palestine Studies Update on Conflict and Diplomacy direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel, would “take the region into [. .] instability.” restrictions on the PLO and its Washington A Hamas spokesperson threatened (12/2) an office may be lifted,” the official stated. “We “escalation of the Jerusalem intifada” should the have advised the PLO office to limit its activities U.S. embassy be moved, referencing the habba, to those related to achieving a lasting, the surge of Palestinian resistance, random comprehensive peace between the Israelis and attacks, and protests that began in Jerusalem in Palestinians.” 9/2015 (see JPS 45 [2]). Abbas personally called (12/2) the leaders of eight Arab states to ask ’ Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s for their help in pressuring Trump to delay or Capital cancel the proposed embassy move. According As December approached, Trump was again to a PA spokesperson, Abbas “warned faced with the issue of the location of the U.S. categorically that taking such a step would lead embassy and whether he would sign a six- to the destruction of the peace process” and month waiver that would circumvent a 1995 propel the region into turmoil. law requiring that it be relocated from Tel Aviv The Palestinian outcry did little to dissuade to Jerusalem. Though Trump campaigned on Trump. According to a report in the a promise that he would implement the Washington Post, the U.S. president appeared Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and move the “agitated and exasperated” during a meeting U.S. embassy to Jerusalem—thereby gaining with his top advisors on the subject of Jerusalem the support of numerous wealthy donors and on 11/27. “Trump seemed frustrated with the backing of key pro-Israel and evangelical pushback about the potential backlash among groups—he had initially acquiesced to his Palestinians and their supporters,” the report advisors upon taking office and signed the stated. waiver in 6/2017 (see JPS 47 [1]). On 12/5, Trump called Abbas, Israeli prime Now, based upon comments by administration minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi king officials, there was much speculation in the Salman bin Abdulaziz, and Egyptian president media and among analysts that Trump would Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to let them know that he not sign the waiver and that he would recognize planned on making his announcement the Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. following day. At a UN event marking the seventy-year “After more than two decades of waivers, anniversary of the UN’s vote to partition we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement Palestine, U.S. vice president Mike Pence said between Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump (11/28) Trump was still “actively considering” said (12/6), in comments broadcast live from moving the embassy. Two days later, the U.S. the White House’s Diplomatic Reception press reported (11/30) that Trump was planning Room.
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