The Meaning Behind the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel

by TMO Staff

The United States moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Before this move was made, many experts on the Middle East, foreign policy and world leaders warned President Trump and the United States to not take such action.

Jerusalem is the holy city for the three-monotheistic religion, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. There are major holy sites for the three religions, which means that any political decision made towards the city, affects the people practicing these religions. Moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem meant that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Israel claims to be a Jewish state, so by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital then the United States has basically said that Jerusalem belongs to Jews and not to Christians or Muslims or to anyone else.

The new embassy was unveiled by Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin. Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, also Special Advisor to the President was present and gave a speech on United States’ commitment to Israel. Kushner also commented on the protesters of the new embassy: “those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution.”. Kushner also stated in his speech that “peace is within reach”, but about 50 miles away in the Gaza strip, Palestinians were being killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

While Americans and Israel were celebrating, innocent civilians were being slaughtered just for protesting. Palestinians and people around the world have been protesting the new Embassy since Trump’s announcement. As of now, 58 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s attack, just for protesting. The United States and Israel hold Hamas responsible for the deaths and not the IDF.

The attacks were on unarmed civilians who were protesting the Embassy. For a country that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel does not like everyone exercising freedom of speech. Israel and Pro-Israeli Americans do everything in their power to hide the atrocities Israel has committed. They have manipulated Americans into believing the issue is about religion and that its Muslims vs Jews, when that is NOT the issue. Jews, Muslims and Christians, could not be any more similar, so it does not make any sense as to why they would fight present day. The issue is about land and who owns the land, and it has to do more with politics than religion.

So why was the Embassy moved in the first place?

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised his base of followers that he would move the American Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Groups like the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) have pushed for actions like this. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netenyahu, was happy to see the change in location and posed for pictures with the Amrican delegation. The Trump administration has said that the move was done to encourage peace, but as seen earlier, the move just caused more violence and cost innocent lives.

How does everyone else feel about this?

The Arab League has called the move “blatant attack on the feelings of Arabs and Muslims” and a “grave violation of the rules of international law”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called for an immediate stop of Israeli fire. An addition to that, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, expressed that he was concerned about “the high number of people killed”.

Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait and Pakistan have all called on the United Nations to take some action against the relocation of the embassy. Even the European Union has called on Israel to stop killing Palestinians in Gaza.

The world waits to see what steps the Trump administration will do next in Israel. There are concerns that Israel might attack the Palestinians in Gaza again, as they did in the Gaza war in 2014. The Palestinians, who have been preparing for Ramadan, now have to be prepared to be possibly be attacked again by Israel.