On December 7, 2017 President Trump publicly recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This decision has faced a lot of backlash for this decision, but he will not retract his declaration. This declaration has begun to unravel many administrations’ attempts at maintaining peace within the Middle East and being a neutral country.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict spans back many years and it really begins with religious ties to Jerusalem. Both Jews and Muslims have religious claims to Jerusalem and they both claim it as their own holy site. It was where Abraham, the first patriarch of Judaism, nearly sacrificed his son to God. Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, would also learn that God had chosen this holy land for them and for them to establish it in his name. Jerusalem was also the last place the Prophet Muhammad visited before he ascended to heaven and talked to God. Both the night journey and communion with God are very important events in Islam. Thus, both religions have very strong ties to the two areas and fight fiercely for the control of it.

The conflict has also stemmed from Zionist immigrants. At first, the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population and they all lived in peace. Then Zionists, an extremist minority of the Jewish population, decided to create their Jewish homeland in Palestine. Soon immigrants flooded into Palestine and the indigenous people became increasingly alarmed. As more Jews immigrated, conflict grew. When the UN decided to intervene they partitioned the land instead of letting them self-govern and ended up giving 55% of Palestine to Jewish state. These two states have now been at conflict for decades now, not only trying to take control of the other country’s land, but also control Jerusalem.

For decades, the United States has remained the primary mediator between the Israelis and Palestinians. Unfortunately, President Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has angered many Palestinians. Many Arab countries now see America taking a side and they are outraged.

On the other hand, America has not been as neutral as it wants to be. The Middle East has already considered the United States to be a biased helper to Israeli interests. As a negotiation tactic, past presidents have granted Israel concessions to make Israeli leaders feel more secure and comfortable to make their own decisions on peace. Other countries see this as favoritism, but America has never come out and said that they supported Israel over the Palestinians. Andrea Zhang ‘18 agrees: “Even though America wants to see itself as innocent” and completely free from bias, the United States “has acted more on the behalf of Israel rather than Palestine and benefited them more”.

As a result of this conflict, violent protests spread throughout the streets of Israel. Israeli troops have not only confronted Palestinian protesters along the Gaza strip, but they have also met many protesters from Malaysia and Turkey. So far, Israeli troops have tried to maintain a less aggressive form of controlling the public, but unfortunately, the protesters are often violent. Many violent attempts have been made at the troops and one person was even discovered with an explosive belt. Missiles are also constantly fired from Gaza towards Israel and even though these are usually from small Islamic groups, Brigadier General Manelis holds Hamas responsible. Hamas is a terrorist organization that was created for the freedom of Palestine.

As the protests continue, more and more violence will break out in Israel and it will soon be too much to just ignore. As Anthony Lan ‘20 stated, if “no action is taken to try and remedy the situation in the Middle East”, the consequences could be dire and “a conflict could be imminent”. The UN will have to take action against this and possibly force President Trump to rescind his statement, but for now he refuses to take it back. By taking Israel’s side, the United States had taken a huge step behind in the peace agreement process between these two states. Palestinian officials have even gone so far as to decline meeting with American officials. With the current contrasting viewpoints and conflicts, the tension between Israel, Palestine, and the United States continually escalates.