FCNL condemns the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a provocative move that foments violence in the Middle East and endangers lives in the Middle East and potentially beyond. The Friends Committee on National Legislation urges Congress to denounce this provocation and to refuse to fund Trump’s planned fortress-like embassy in Jerusalem.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
kate@fcnl.org
202-547-6000
12/6/2017
FCNL’s Legislative Director for Middle East Policy Kate Gould made the following statement:
“President Trump’s irresponsible political theatre to grant recognition of unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a deliberate provocation that puts Palestinian, Israeli, and American lives at risk.
“Trump’s decision will have immediate and potentially catastrophic impacts for Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. This announcement will encourage the further entrenchment of Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and the daily humiliations of occupation that Palestinians there and throughout the occupied territories endure.
“Trump said that Jerusalem is a place where ‘people of all faiths are free to live and worship according to their conscience and according to their beliefs.’ The thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem that have staged historic protests of mass civil disobedience in order to freely access and worship at the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound in recent months belie this misleading narrative.
“The fall-out from this reckless decision will not be confined to Israel-Palestine, but will foment violence around the world, as the U.S. State Department and political and religious leaders around the globe have warned.
“FCNL will be working with our nation-wide network to press members of Congress to denounce this decision and refuse to fund Trump’s plans to build a fortress-like embassy in Jerusalem. Like Trump’s promise to build a border wall with Mexico and dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump’s plan for a behemoth of an embassy in Jerusalem cannot be realized unless Congress acquiesces on funding. At this time of such turmoil, members of Congress have a particular responsibility to end the U.S.-backed Israeli military occupation and press for the beginning of a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has worked for more than a century to promote a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. FCNL is a national Quaker organization committed to pressing the United States to play a more constructive role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. FCNL’s work is rooted in historic Quaker testimonies on peace and equality and Quaker witness in the region.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people of many different faiths from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government.