Mahmoud Abbas lambasts Trump's decision on Jerusalem

Agencies

December 7, 2017

Mahmoud Abbas has lambasted the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying the Palestinian leadership refuses to acknowledge President Donald Trump's contentious move.

Calling Jerusalem the "eternal capital of the State of Palestine", the president of the Palestinian Authority said on Wednesday the US could no longer be a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

His comments were in response to an earlier announcement by Trump during which he said the US was formally recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and would begin the process of moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

"This is a reward to Israel," Abbas said in a televised address, adding that Trump's move encouraged Israel's "continuing occupation" of the Palestinian territories.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian leaders called for three days of rage against the move.

The status of Jerusalem has ignited tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 War with Syria, Egypt and Jordan; the western half of the holy city had been captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem effectively put the entire city under de-facto Israeli control. Israeli jurisdiction and ownership of Jerusalem, however, is not recognised by the international community.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

"The decision by President Trump will not change the reality of the city of Jerusalem and will not give any legitimacy to the Israelis on this issue," said Abbas.

"We will achieve national independence."

'Dangerous decision'
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Trump "has disqualified his country from any possible role in the peace process" and "destroyed any possibility of peace" between Israelis and Palestinians.

"He's pushing this region towards chaos [and] violence," Erekat told Al Jazeera.

He said the PLO Central Council would likely convene to discuss what next steps for the Palestinians.

He said its "meaningless" to have a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital.

The only option remaining for Palestinians, Erekat said, "is to fight for equal rights" between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the area of historic Palestine.

"This is the most dangerous decision that any US president has ever taken," he said.

Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, said Trump was "playing with fire".

"Those who celebrate Trump's declaration here in Israel, are the ones who will do everything to prevent order and peace, and to advance the settlements as well as supporting the occupation, while trying to strangle the just national aspirations of the Palestinian people," Zahalka said in a statement.

Echoing Netanyahu
Commenting on Trump's speech, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said Trump had reiterated "point-by-point" previous statements by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister.

"Trump was a parrot, repeating after Netanyahu in terms of everything that we know today about Israel's position on Palestine," he said.

"There is something dramatic new in what Trump said this evening, wrapped up in a language of peace and civility.

"In fact, this was a declaration of war against the Palestinian people and their rights, and against the international community and its commitment to international law and to a two-state solution."

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Israel killing Palestinian children in Gaza every day despite ceasefire: UNICEF

News Network

November 22,2025

The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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