Tuesday, December 26, 2017

2nd Embassy

From the BBC:
"Jerusalem: Guatemala follows US in planning Israel embassy move"

Guatemala is to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first country after the US to vow to do so. It was one of only nine to vote against a UN resolution which in effect repudiated the US' recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Israel's PM thanked Guatemala's president, but Palestinians branded the decision "shameful and illegal". Donald Trump's controversial declaration on Jerusalem has been widely spurned around the world.The status of the city is one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a hoped-for Palestinian state.  Guatemala, along with 12 other countries, had their embassies in Jerusalem until 1980, when they moved them to Tel Aviv after Israel annexed East Jerusalem, in a move not recognised internationally. All other countries still have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Guatemala and Israel have a long history of political, economic and military ties. The Central American country is also a major recipient of US aid - something which Donald Trump threatened to cut to states that voted in favour of the UN resolution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Morales, saying more countries would follow suit. "It is only the beginning and it is important," he wrote on Facebook. On Twitter, the US embassy in Guatemala said (in Spanish) it "applauded the historic decision" by Mr Morales. However, the Palestinian foreign ministry said the decision was "a shameful and illegal act" that violated the UN resolution.

^ It would be nice if more countries followed-suit. From 1948-1967 Israelis and Jews were not allowed into East Jerusalem because of the Palestinians, Jordanians and other Muslim countries discriminatory rules. Since 1967 Israel has allowed Jews, Christians and Muslims to go anywhere within a unified Jerusalem. I just don't understand why the rest of the world would promote the return to the discrimination except that they could be anti-Semitic. ^


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