As recent headlines have announced, Monday May 14th is the opening day of the new United States Embassy in Isreal. It's located in Jerusalem. Trump announced this change several months ago and it has received mixed reactions both at home and abroad. Here are the reasons why this matters to everyone.
The biggest issue with the move is how much criticism this has received, mainly concentrated in the Middle East. Palestine hopes to claim part of the city as their capital. Isreal currently has control of the city including many holy sites for both Jews and Muslims that are contained there. Previously the capital was located in Tel Aviv.
The move from Tel Aviv was based on siding more with Isreal in the ongoing conflict. This has been discussed by several previous presidents including former president Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. However, none of them ever did move the embassy until now under President Trump.
The reason why this makes many people nervous is that there is already a four way conflict going on in the area. Palestine and Isreal both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Though Israel’s parliament and the prime minister’s home are in Jerusalem, they sit in West Jerusalem, on the side of the city Israel has controlled since 1949. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed that half of the city.
"The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. But that half of the city also contains sites holy to all three major monotheistic religions, including the Western Wall, the holiest place in the world where Jews can openly pray, and Haram al-Sharif, Arabic for “the Noble Sanctuary,” a sacred site for Muslims that Israelis refer to as the Temple Mount. Palestine wants to divide the city, however Isreal has made it very clear they have no plans to do so."- Vox
On top of all of this, leading up to the event, 50 Palestinians were killed by Isreali soldiers on the Gaza border and wounded 2,200 more of them. Many of these people were unarmed however few were throwing Moltov cocktails and three were suspected of attempting to detonate a bomb.
But, all of this is contrary to how the US has dealt with the situation the last 25 or so years. We have been a messenger in peace talks in the region and have continued to put out any fires that started. The trump administration has continually said that this move does not take one side over the other. However in the eyes of Palestine, the US looks like's it's siding with Isreal. This could be a real issue moving forward as we have often negotiated peace talks in the region.
And, seeing that we just pulled out of the Iran Nuclear agreement, growing tensions in the area and increased missile launches from Iran to Isreal, the conflict here may be far from settled.
