After two world wars in less than 25 years, the international community strived – over half a century ago – to create relations between countries based on the principles of respect to human rights, of self-determination, international cooperation, and peaceful solution of disputes.
Unilateral decisions – without consensus – taken by any single country will irrevocably affect the international community. Within this framework falls the announcement made yesterday by the President of the U.S. Donald Trump of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and moving the American embassy to this city, currently located in Tel Aviv.
Jerusalem has historic relevance for the three most important religions in the world. It's a holy place for Judaism and Christianism , and an important location for Islam .
Although several countries have consulates in the city, so far no country has established their embassy in Jersualem, since international agreement has conditioned this decision to a peace agreement between Arabs and Israelis.
The American attitude towards Jerusalem is the one which predominates ever since Trump arrived to the White House: discard multilateral agreements and pursue only his own interests. Pursuant to this, he has withdrawn America from the Paris Agreement aimed to fight global warming, he left UNESCO , and, recently, quit the UN Global Compact for Migration. Even if these decisions do not threaten world peace, his announcement on Jerusalem has set off alarms worldwide and increased fears of seeing the fragile harmony in Middle East fractured once more. With the exception of Israel, the international community has condemned the decision.
In the Arab-Israeli conflict, the United States has played a decisive role in the few agreements reached. Leaning to the side of one the parties involved and stepping away from international organisms such as the United Nations, Trump is acting once more in an individualistic and dangerous manner.
When a person in charge of leading the most powerful country in the world prioritizes particular interests over international ones, consequences may have an unexpected outcome. The other nations need to become a true counterweight to the actions attempting against peace.
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