Palestinian/ Israeli update 6/01/2017... embassy transfer put on hold

Trump expected to put on hold embassy transfer

Trump promises to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem

Trump delays U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem

In Latest Flip-Flop, Trump Decides Not To Move Israel Embassy To Jerusalem | Zero Hedge

The list of campaign promise reversals continues to grow as The FT reports President Donald Trump has decided not to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a major reversal of one of his foreign policy campaign pledges.

During the presidential campaign Mr Trump repeatedly vowed to move the US embassy to Jerusalem despite concerns that it would exacerbate tensions between Israel and the Arab world.

Washington’s embassy is in Tel Aviv, as are most foreign diplomatic posts. Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal capital, but Palestinians also lay claim to the city as part of an eventual Palestinian state. Both sides cite biblical, historical and political claims. The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1995 describing Jerusalem as capital of Israel and saying it should not be divided, but successive Republican and Democratic presidents have used their foreign policy powers to maintain the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and to back negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the status of Jerusalem.

As we noted previously, any decision to break with the status quo is likely to prompt protests from U.S. allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama all signed repeated six-month waivers postponing the move for national security reasons.

No countries currently have their embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.

So, first China currency manipulation, then Yellen’s future, followed by Ex-Im Bank, and NATO, and now, Mr Trump on Thursday followed the path of his predecessors in the Oval Office by taking action to circumvent a Congressional mandate to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

Trump offered no hints at his decision last week on his visit to Israel with his ‘old friend’ Bibi…

But we do note that he (reportedly) was angry at Palestine’s Abbas for “lying.”

The White House said in a statement that the decision was made to “maximise the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians”.

“While President Donald J. Trump signed the waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act and delayed moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance,” the White House added.

So Saudis 1 – 0 Bibi?

Maybe not, as Axios notes, a source who has been in the process for multiple presidents told Axios, this is Trump defaulting to the status quo. Bureaucrats brief a new president, show them the doomsday forecast of riots, broken peace deals, new security requirements and other issues, and presidents back off. etc.

Israel systematically destroyed Gaza economy

Israel main cause of Palestinian suffering, UN says

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-main-cause-palestinian-suffering-un-says

Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which will exceed the 50-year mark in June, is “the main cause” of Palestinian humanitarian needs, the United Nations has affirmed. “The occupation denies Palestinians control over basic aspects of daily life, whether they live in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” according to a report released Wednesday by the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.

“At its heart, the crisis in the [occupied Palestinian territories] is one of a lack of protection for Palestinian civilians – from violence, from displacement, from restrictions on access to services and livelihoods, and from other rights violations – with a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable, children in particular,” OCHA head David Carden said. That crisis is particularly acute right now in the Gaza Strip, where a lack of electricity, on top of a 10-year Israeli blockade and successive military assaults, has brought the territory to the brink of collapse.

Demolition surge

Palestinians saw in 2016 the highest number of Israeli demolitions of homes and other structures since the UN began keeping records in 2009. The number of donor-funded structures demolished was also unprecedented, nearly tripling from the previous year. A total of 1,601 people were displaced due to all demolitions, about half of them children. The majority lost their homes on the pretext that they were constructed without building permits from Israeli occupation authorities that are next to impossible for Palestinians to obtain. But 156 people were made homeless by punitive demolitions or sealing.

In 2014, Israel resumed the practice of collectively punishing the entire family of a person accused of an attack against Israelis, a policy it has accelerated since then. Israel’s policy of revenge against family members of accused persons is reserved exclusively for Palestinians and is never used against Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israel’s demolitions create “a coercive environment” leading to forced displacement and “forcible transfer,” the UN states. Thousands of families still displaced….. read more here

Palestinian Ministry: UN Report Welcomed, But Too Little, Too Late

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960311000974

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the 2016 annual report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory, it nevertheless said the report was too little, too late.

The UN report said the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is the main cause of humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and serious deterioration in the human rights situation in occupied Palestine, WAFA reported.

The ministry said that the report, even though it came late, “reflects only a part of the great suffering of our people as a result of the occupier’s policies, practices and crimes”.

It said that the difficulty of the political and humanitarian situation experienced by the Palestinians seem to have forced the UN to openly talk about them in spite of its earlier silence regarding most of the Israeli violations of international law.

“It appears that the United Nations either is no longer able to bear the level of those violations that have reached serious stages that led it to issue its report, or is obliged due to the time factor to issue this periodic report,” it said.

The ministry said the United Nations, in accordance with its Charter, has to stand by the Palestinian people and their struggle against the occupation and is compelled to have Israel, as an occupying power, abide by these principles.

The ministry strongly criticized statements by office of the UN Secretary-General regarding a women’s center in the West Bank village of Burqa near Nablus because the center was named after Dalal al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian resistance fighter killed by Israel in 1978 during a military operation.

“The UN reaction adopted the Israeli narrative and language totally ignoring its report, which summarizes a series of flagrant Israeli violations of international law … and Palestinian human rights,” it said.

Instead, it added, the UN “comes out with odd, dangerous and unprecedented statements and gives disturbing signals about changes occurring in the function and language of the United Nations in recent times.”

Palestinian refugees’ dreams of returning home fade

Amb. Danny Ayalon, Former Israeli Ambassador to the U S – June 1, 2017

Israeli troops shoot, critically injure Palestinian woman in West Bank

Your Morning News From Israel – June 1, 2017.

Your Evening News From Israel – June 1, 2017