Palestinian leadership has threatened to revoke recognition of Israel if Donald Trump moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and is calling for protests in “churches and mosques” on Friday and Saturday.
The comments come after Palestinian officials said they had been told by diplomatic contacts that Trump may be preparing to announce the relocation of the US embassy during his inauguration speech on 20 January. It also follows threats from Palestinian leader Abbas last week that such a move would “cross a red line” and “jeopardise world peace”
According to a report by the Guardian, senior Palestinian officials warned that the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s recognition of Israel – one of the key pillars of the moribund Oslo peace agreements – is in danger of being revoked if the US embassy is moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Palestinian leadership is also calling for protests in mosques and churches on Friday and Sunday to object to the move, calling for opposition to the plan “from Pakistan to Tehran, from Lebanon to Oman”.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told reporters on Tuesday that any move to relocate the US embassy would provoke a reaction. “One of the measures we are considering seriously is the issue of mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel. [It] is not valid any more doing this,” he said referring to the proposed embassy move.
The warning came amid increasingly stark warnings over the risk of an “explosion of violence” in the region if the US embassy is moved, and after Abbas himself wrote to Trump to reconsider, citing the dangers in the move.
In his letter – disclosed on Monday and also copied to other world leaders – Abbas told Trump moving the embassy “will likely have [a] disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region, since Israel’s decision to annex East Jerusalem contradicts with international law”.
The comments came after the officials said they had been told by diplomatic contacts that Trump may be preparing to announce the relocation of the US embassy during his inauguration speech on 20 January.
Abbas: US embassy move to Jerusalem would cross “red line” and “jeopardise world peace”
Last week, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned President-elect Donald Trump against moving the US American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Moving the embassy would be crossing a “red line” and could jeopardize peace prospects, warned Abbas, according to AFP.
“Any statement or position that disrupts or changes the status of Jerusalem is a red line which we will not accept,” he declared in a speech, a transcript of which was published by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Abbas said that if the embassy was moved “the peace process in the Middle East, and even peace in the world, will be in severe trouble.”
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