The Palestinian Authority has threatened to “make life miserable” for US President-elect Donald Trump if he follows through on his election campaign promise to move America’s embassy to Jerusalem.
“If people attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem, it means they are showing belligerence towards us,” stated the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour. “If they do that, nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the UN to defend ourselves, and we have a lot of weapons in the UN.”
In remarks carried by the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, Mansour acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority could not take any legally binding action against the US in the Security Council, but said he could cause Washington headaches by constantly petitioning for official admission of the Palestinian Authority as a member state.
At any rate, the Palestinian Authority continues to believe Trump will follow the example of his predecessors, most of whom likewise promised while they were campaigning to move the US embassy, but failed to fulfill that promise once in office.
“Many candidates gave the same election promise, but didn’t implement it because what you do when you are campaigning is one thing, but when you have to deal with the legal thing, it is something else,” Mansour asserted.
While the UN does not recognize Israel’s annexation of the eastern half of Jerusalem, it is, in fact, not illegal for nations to have their embassies to Israel located within the pre–1967 boundaries of the city’s western half, which is recognized as the official administrative capital of Israel.
Moving the American embassy to Jerusalem’s western side would send a strong message in support of Israel’s claim to the city in general, but would not be breaking any laws, contrary to Mansour’s faulty interpretations.
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Originally posted at Israel Today Magazine.
