The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one that can be traced back centuries, as both the Jews and Arab Muslims say they claimed the land all of those years ago. However, the political conflicts really started to heat up in the early 20th century, and little progress has since been made to settle the disputes between the two groups of people. The center of conflict has been around who has claims to the land—which is located east of the Mediterranean Sea— and how it is ultimately controlled.
Not long ago, Donald Trump announced that the United States will formally recognize the land as Jerusalem, and belonging to the Israeli’s. In recent peace agreements taken place during United Nations Conferences, the United States has been aiding Israel in the push that the land be undivided as Jerusalem, and arguing other countries to recognize this as well. Of course, the Palestinian Government immediately rejected this proposal, with their President Mahmoud Abbas making the statement “This is an Israeli-American preemptive plan in order to put an end to the question of Palestine. It was rejected by us because it considers that East Jerusalem is no longer under the sovereignty of the State of Palestine” (UN News).
Unfortunately, the people living in this region have been forced to be nothing more than collateral damage amongst this decades-long political dispute. Human Rights Watch, an organization set up by a few hundred people of dozens of nationalities has been keeping track of the hardships these people have faced, stating ‘Israeli authorities destroyed 504 Palestinian homes and other structures in 2019 as November 11, the majority for lacking construction permits. Israel makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain such permits in East Jerusalem” (HumanRightsWatch).This is just one of the many examples of how these people are enduring the losses of their homes, loved ones and more, due to the lack of compromise on how to divide the given land.
Furthermore, just this past week CNN reported “Three Palestinians were killed in clashes in the West Bank and 12 Israeli soldiers were injured in a ramming attack in Jerusalem”. This was due to the recent rising tensions caused by the United States announcement of their plans for the region at the UN. With both Israel and Palestine believing they have full claims to the territory, and neither willing to compromise even parts of the region, it is unlikely we will see drastic change in the conditions of the conflict.
I read up on this as well and I am really surprised that Trump would make a move like this, especially since Jerusalem has not been recognized as a capital of either Israel or Palestine due to conflicts, and US Presidents have notably been very quiet about who should get the status of having Jerusalem as their capital. In my opinion, it is a relatively risky thing to do, since there has been outrage about this issue since he has made this move.