GUE/NGL MEPs in the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Palestine (DPAL):
 
We deplore threats by the Trump administration to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognise the city as the capital of Israel.
 
If carried out, the US will betray its historic commitment to the two-state solution and make irrelevant its role in the peace process. Furthermore, the move will alienate the entire Arab and Muslim world and unleash further instability in the region.
 
No country in the world recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, particularly because under UN General Assembly resolution 181 (1947) Jerusalem was established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime.
 
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People confirms that city’s status remains such.
 
For decades Israel has sought to change the status of Jerusalem through facts on the ground and in violation of international law: the continued expansion of settlements, restrictive zoning and planning, ongoing demolitions and evictions, an inequitable education policy, restricted access to health care, the inadequate provision of resources and investment, and the precarious residency issue. These actions not only have serious humanitarian consequences, they undermine the Palestinian presence in the city.
 
The future of Jerusalem cannot be decided unilaterally and through force. There is no Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital. Trump’s vision, like that of Israel’s far-right government, is of a perpetual occupation.
 
We call on EU to make clear that setbacks in the peace process, such as Trump’s actions, the construction of settlements and human rights violations, are setbacks in the EU’s relations with Israel.
 
The EU must also make clear to the United States that a unilateral move in Jerusalem is a historic betrayal to longstanding shared positions in the peace process and will undermine the perspective of the two state solution.

Neoklis Sylikiotis (chair, Cyprus)

Martina Anderson (Ireland)

Patrick Le Hyaric (France)

Sofia Sakorafa (Greece)

Miguel Urbán Crespo (Spain)

Ángela Vallina (Spain)