The day Trump moved the embassy in Jerusalem | Make …

The US embbady in Jerusalem will return tomorrow in a year. The diplomatic earthquake that caused the transfer of the diplomatic legation on May 14, 2018 coincided with a bloodbath in the Gaza Strip. One year later, uncertainties about the immediate and future consequences of this decision in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain.

The transfer with great pomp of the American Embbady from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was one of the most controversial promises of President Donald Trump: the recognition, announced in December 2017, of this city as the capital of the United States. Israel, thus breaking the international consensus.

For Israel, this is the "historic" recognition of a 3,000-year connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. Palestinians, who want to make the east of the city the capital of the state they aspire to, are outraged. The international community has also repudiated the decision of the New York mogul.

The status of Jerusalem has been in dispute since the creation of Israel in 1948 and the war that accompanied it. Israel seized East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it. However, the UN considers that East Jerusalem is occupied. For this reason, countries with diplomatic headquarters in Israel maintain their embbadies outside the city until the status is negotiated.

Since March 2018, the border between Gaza and Israel has seen Palestinians continuously protest for their right to return to the lands they fled or were expelled with the creation of Israel and against the blockade imposed by the Hebrew state to contain Hamas, which holds power in the enclave. These events are what are known as "return marches". According to Hamas, it is a peaceful movement born in civil society, but for Israel, it is a violent instrumentalization on the part of the Islamist movement.

With the transfer of the American Embbady in Jerusalem on May 14, two claims were reunited in one: the protest against the transfer of the legation and the annual commemoration of the "Nakba", the disaster that represented for Palestinians creation of Israel on May 14, 1948. At least 62 Palestinians died that day during demonstrations and clashes with Israeli soldiers.

In addition to ongoing protests in Gaza, unanticipated tensions – the latest among them in early May – have been followed by Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli retaliatory attacks, causing renewed fears on both sides. open confrontation. . Some 300 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed by acts of violence since March 2018.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict sees no solution in the short term. Diplomatic initiatives have been stalled since 2014, in a context in which Hamas rejects the existence of Israel – with whom it has had three wars since 2008 – while the Jewish state continues to be in a state of disrepute. add new settlements in the West Bank.

The arrival of Trump at the White House is one of a man who has promised to be the most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States. Since then, his administration has stepped up protests and pro-Israel grievances against the Palestinians. Two days after Washington, Guatemala announced the transfer of its embbady to Jerusalem. Paraguay was next, but reversed in September after a change of government. Other countries affirm their intention to imitate the United States, but without specifying it.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon has been relying on the unprecedented dynamics of visiting foreign officials and opening missions that, however, do not have the rank of embbadies. An example of this is the case of Brazil. Although the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, promised in the campaign the transfer of his legation to Jerusalem, he opened in this city only a business promotion office.

For Palestinians, relations with the United States are going through the worst period in their history, said Ahmed Majdalani, advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. US initiatives on Jerusalem have had a significant impact and, in one year, the Trump administration has moved from partial intermediary status to defender of the Israeli occupation, said the councilor.

Palestinian officials suspended official contacts with the US government in December 2017, while rejecting Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner's plans to reach a final diplomatic agreement with the White House.

The plan should be presented after Ramadan, which ends in early June, said Kushner, which would give Benjamin Netanyahu time to form an Israeli government perhaps even more fair than the previous one.

The US administration continues to say that the plan will break the historical parameters. In that regard, he could not, in particular, refer to the creation of an independent Palestinian State. Asked before the wedding anniversary, the State Department recalled that the embbady transfer only acknowledged a reality and did not prejudge upcoming negotiations, promising a "fair, realistic" plan and achievable ", which" will offer a future favorable to all. "

Hugh Lovatt, an badyst at the European Council for External Relations, said the decisions taken in Jerusalem produced the desired effect in terms of US domestic policy of flattering part of Trump's electorate. "But they have a negative impact on your future peace plan, and it's harder for the Gulf countries to join now because East Jerusalem is a red line," Lovatt said.