Daily Times

Donald Trump’s reckless move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s historic and eternal capital exposes the deep divisions in the US state and society. The escalating economic crisis and failure of the US capitalism to halt the socioeconomic decline has exacerbated the predicament of the American people. Cracks within the Trump administration have opened up. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary James Mattis were both opposed to Trump’s move. But they have been relegated by the ultra-Zionist trio of Jason Greenblatt US President’s diplomatic adviser, David Friedman, American ambassador to Israel and Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, who are now calling the shots and are sponsoring Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land. If there were any doubts about the Israeli tail wagging the US dog, these have been dispelled by now. The frustrations emanating from the military defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the recent years have added to this turmoil. But above all, this insanity is a manifestation of the terminal decay of US imperialism — the largest economic and military empire in history.

It is also a manoeuvre by Trump to distract the threat of his impeachment. He had called his close regional allies, the kings and despots in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan etc. a day earlier. Those phone call would have been a blow for these rulers whose regimes are already quivering from the unrest beneath them. Faced with social instabilities, their increased reliance on the US imperialism has turned out to be a dangerous survival strategy. These Arab and Muslim rulers have for decades used verbal support for the Palestinian struggle as an external cover, while they have crushed internal dissent. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Trump’s rash move can further flare up the conflagration in the Middle East.

The incapacity of Arab and Muslim rulers to stand up to the US imperialists and their inability to take any bold steps against Israeli occupation and repression of the Palestinians will make them vulnerable in the pulsating outrage and revolts that may now erupt in their countries. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem again exposed the artificiality and impotence of institutions like the UN, OIC, GCC and the Arab League. The so-called ‘international community’ is a club of capitalist rulers who have manipulated issues through hypocritical gestures in order to diffuse mass revolts.

The incapacity of Arab and Muslim rulers to stand up to US imperialists — as well as their inability to take any bold steps against Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands — will make them vulnerable to the pulsating outrage and revolts that may now erupt in their countries

Several hours before the announcement by Trump, protests had already broken out in the Palestinian territories in response to the expected move. The Palestinians call for  ‘three days of rage’ is already beginning to spill on the streets of Palestine, Middle East and far beyond. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the ‘Palestinian Authority’ (PA), has been radical only in words, while in practice he has been craven in his approach to Israel and to the US over the years. The PA, to ordinary Palestinians, is a by-word of corruption, nepotism and graft. Not surprisingly, Abbas has not much credibility left.

Similar condemnations from the leaders of various regimes in the Muslin world are more from the fear of a mass revulsion against Trump that would make them the targets, due to their ties with the US. US recognition also lays bare the impossibility of a ‘negotiated settlement’ of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict under the auspices of the big capitalist powers and within the confines of the capitalist system. Even Pope Francis had to oppose this move: “the status quo that governs Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound should be respected.”

The 1947 UN Partition Plan, agreed by the world imperialist powers and ironically by Stalin’s Russia, was meant to divide historical Palestine between Jewish and Arab states, and under this plan Jerusalem was granted special status to be placed theoretically under ‘international sovereignty and control’. The special status was based on Jerusalem’s ‘religious importance’ to the three Abrahamic religions. In the 1948 war, the Zionist forces took control of the western half of the city and declared the territory to be a part of Israel. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Israeli army occupied the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem and declared the city as its ‘eternal, undivided’ capital. In 1968, the then Mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek described the annexation strategy of the regime in the following words: “The object is to ensure that all of Jerusalem remains forever a part of Israel. If this city is to be our capital, then we have to make it an integral part of our country, and we need Jewish inhabitants to do that.”

In 1980, Israel formalised its annexation of the eastern half of the city when it passed the Jerusalem Law, claiming: “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. All the departments of the Israeli government institutions, including the parliament, or Knesset, and the Supreme Court were now located in Jerusalem.

Today, 86 per cent of East Jerusalem is under direct control of the Israeli authorities and Jewish settlers. Around 200,000 settlers live in settlements that have been mostly built on Palestinian land. The separation wall, which Israel started building in 2002, snakes through the West Bank territory, dividing villages, encircling towns and splitting families from each other. It has disconnected 140,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem neighbourhoods from the rest of the city, basic services and infrastructure. In the last ten years, more than 2,600 people have been rendered homeless after their houses were demolished.

Only 56 per cent of Jerusalem’s 324,000 Palestinians are connected to the city’s official water grid. In East Jerusalem, the lack of access to water and other services, including public transportation, was exacerbated due to the planning freeze since 1967, while population has been growing over the years. The ‘Arnona municipal tax’ is an instrument of discrimination affecting the Palestinians, exceeding the annual rent of low-income families. Israel is following an open policy of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, December 10^th 2017.