{"id":3868,"date":"2017-12-22T19:01:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T19:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2018-01-02T19:09:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T19:09:40","slug":"what-happens-next-in-jerusalem-watch-this-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/?p=3868","title":{"rendered":"What Happens Next in Jerusalem? Watch this Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIMI KIRK ,\u00a0<\/a>

One critical corridor might be incorporated into Greater Jerusalem, which could have a major impact on the region’s stability.<\/p>\n

When Donald Trump\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that the U.S. would recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there,\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0was elated. So were other right-leaning political leaders in Israel, and many (but\u00a0not all<\/a>)\u00a0evangelical Christians<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. (about a third of whom\u00a0believe in a rapture scenario<\/a>\u00a0that requires a Jewish capital in Jerusalem). This week, the\u00a0UN Security Council<\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0large majority of UN members<\/a>condemned the move. So has the\u00a0Palestinian leadership<\/a>, who see predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.Such are the political takes from governing bodies and leaders. But will Trump\u2019s announcement change anything significant in Jerusalem itself? In the immediate short term, not really: The U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem wouldn\u2019t happen for years, for instance. But over the longer term, the move could soon begin to alter the shape of the city, by encouraging Israel to continue seizing and settling land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.<\/section>\n
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\u201cTrump\u2019s announcement rubber-stamps Israel\u2019s land grabs, and we\u2019ll likely see more of them than in the past,\u201d said Zena Agha, a Palestinian-Iraqi scholar who has studied urban planning in Jerusalem. Indeed, two days after Trump\u2019s announcement, Israeli Construction Minister Yoav Galant\u00a0announced plans<\/a>\u00a0for 14,000 new settlement units \u201cin response to the historic decision of President Trump.\u201d Seven thousand units will be in East Jerusalem, where today\u00a0370,000 Palestinians and 280,000 Jewish settlers<\/a>\u00a0live. More than half a million Jewish settlers inhabit the West Bank as a whole.<\/p>\n