As expected, the UN General Assembly on Thursday backed a resolution effectively calling on the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Approved by 128 states, with 35 abstaining and nine others voting against, the resolution mirrored one that the US vetoed in the Security Council earlier in the week. That resolution, which every Security Council member except for the US voted in favor of, and that of the General Assembly, declared that decisions made on the status of Jerusalem were “null and void and must be rescinded”.
Actually, from the start, the Jerusalem announcement had no legal justification. The US administration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital does not mean that Jerusalem suddenly became the capital of Israel. The move amounts to little more than an acknowledgement by one country, the United States, that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital – not that it actually is. The US is not the law of the land and it is certainly not the law of the international community. That would be the purview of the United Nations. It only means that the US has taken this decision and because of it, it’s up to Washington to deal with the fallout.
A country cannot pick and choose the capital of another country. Only a country itself can decide what its capital should be. But in the case of Jerusalem, even that is impossible. How can Israel pick as its capital a city that it has occupied for 70 years?
On paper, the tiniest and mightiest countries in the world may recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and put their embassies there. They are entitled to their decisions and their views but they are positions that have no legal bearing. Saying so doesn’t make it so. Jerusalem is considered a final status issue, to be decided only at the end of peace talks, not before they have even started. No country bases their diplomatic mission in Jerusalem as a result.
Of course, the big difference is that the US, which bestowed on Jerusalem this new title of being Israel’s capital, is the foremost mediator and caretaker of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, as well as the country whose administration believes it will be the one that will ultimately make peace between the two sides.
Washington believes the Jerusalem announcement will boost the chances of a negotiated settlement. Seeing the latest resolutions, it’s very difficult to square the two. But it should be pointed out that in making his announcement, Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of a divided Jerusalem serving as the capital for both Israel and Palestine in a two-state solution, nor did he take a position on any other contested boundaries or issues. Trump’s announcement also did not shift the US position on control of Muslim and Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem. Again, this is a US decision, one which it must take full responsibility for.
Sprinkled throughout Trump’s UN speech in September and in his recent national security address was the idea of the rights of every sovereign nation. It is the central principle of President Trump’s engagement with the world, whether on trade, border security, foreign policy or national defense: American sovereignty.
So, too, the member countries of the UN are sovereign. They are free from external control. They are all independent nations that have one vote, one which cannot be bought or sold.
Despite the twin UN votes, the US should remain a strong partner with the countries allied to it. Countries who voted for the resolutions are not America’s enemies. It is very normal for close allies to have differences. They don’t necessarily have to see things eye to eye. In such circumstances they talk. They may reach middle ground or they may not. But the relationship does not simply crumble like a cookie because they have divergent views.
