Statement by PLO Secretary General Dr. Saeb Erekat on US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem

“The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and now to move its embassy on the eve of marking 70 years since the Nakba (catastrophe), the ethnic cleansing of at least 418 Palestinian villages, and the forcible displacement of two thirds of our people, shows the determination of the US administration to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution, and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people, as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe. 

As we have stated before and is now abundantly clear by the decision to move its embassy in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 478, President Trump and his team have disqualified the US from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem.

International law and consensus state that the legal status of Jerusalem is that it is not part of the sovereign state of Israel. At the same time, East Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Palestine, an integral part of the territory occupied by Israel since 1967.”