The Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) leaders who held an extraordinary meeting in Constantinople, on Wednesday, December 13, turned their back to Trump’s decision and decided to declare “East Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine”, as was written in the official closing announcement of the summit.

“In its Final Communiqué, the Summit held the US administration fully responsible for any repercussions of it refusing to disavow this unlawful decision, taking it as a clear desertion by the US administration of its role as peace broker. The Summit also dismissed the decision as a gift to Israel for its continuous renouncement of agreements and blatant breach to international legitimacy.

The call was also for the OIC Member States to impose political and economic restrictions on States, officials, parliaments, companies and individuals recognizing Israeli annexation of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, or engaging in any form with measures aimed at perpetuating Israeli colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories”.

Leaving aside the effects of Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem itself and the people who have long become pawns of politicians who leave thousands of miles away but make decisions about Jerusalemites, there is also another problem on the Palestinian side. Who will head and handle the mediation peace process in the Middle East. That was a key issue which, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, made clear at the OIC extraordinary meeting it will now be of extreme interest and in need of great care. Because of his decision, Trump messed up the whole process, with Abbas declaring that his people will no longer accept the U.S. as a mediator; instead they have opted for the United Nations security council where, according to their President, they will “seek full membership of the UN while asking the world body to take control of the peace process as Washington was no longer ‘fit’ for the task”, reports The Guardian.

For the record, the international community, other than the United States of America, the Czech Republic and Vanuatu, treats East Jerusalem -which Israel captured from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and then annexed it into Jerusalem, along with more surrounding territory- as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel and does not recognise it as Israel’s capital. Since the 1980s, the city hosts no foreign embassies as, due to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, member states were called upon to withdraw their diplomatic missions from Jerusalem. However, after the current developments and Trump’s move, a newly-issued Presidential order in the U.S. suggests the move of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Source: Lida Filippakis/balkaneu.com