Several hundred demonstrators marched from the Israeli consulate to News Corp headquarters in NY.
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About 75 nations and global organizations gathered Sunday in Paris to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and send the message that much of the world wants to end Israel’s half-century occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the Palestinians hope to establish a state.
What will replace the two-state solution framework as laid out by the Oslo Accords is unclear, but the indications from the Trump administration are worrisome.
It also will affirm that the worldwide community “will not recognize” changes to Israel’s pre-1967 lines without agreement by both sides.
According to his aides, Kerry’s attendance at the conference was an expression of his support for a two-state solution- a rapidly dwindling prospect with the growth of Israel’s settlement enterprise in the West Bank, the outgoing secretary argued last month in a policy speech.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be their capital, but Israel has ruled out dividing the city that serves as its capital.
Israel insists Jews have a biblical right to those lands seized in the 1967 war.
Abbas is expected to travel to Paris in the coming weeks but Netanyahu has rejected the offer, French diplomats said.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in settlements that most world governments view as illegal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contacted Johnson before the vote, but did not speak to British Prime Minister Theresa May.
After taking an active role in efforts to forge peace in Syria, the Obama administration has been watching latest developments largely from the sidelines, as Russian Federation and Turkey have taken the lead.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Sunday’s statement amounted to a rejection of Israel’s occupation and settlement construction in captured territories.
Hollande’s claim notwithstanding, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict emerged in the early decades of the 20th century – some 1,300 years after the beginning of the Sunni-Shi’a rift that underpins much of the instability across the region today.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that such a move could “bury the hopes for a two-state solution”.
Spokesman Mark Toner said the the U.S. did not “want to see anything that attempts to impose a solution on Israel”.
The worldwide community is stressing its commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East peace process.
“I can not accept the status quo, letting people think that the conflict would resolve itself. You have to try to create the conditions for peace”, he said. “Let us fix a historic injustice”. It said it had “reservations about an global conference meant to advance peace between the parties that does not involve them – indeed, which is taking place against the wishes of the Israelis – and which is taking place just days before the transition to a new American president when the U.S. will be the ultimate guarantor of any agreement”.
“We can not continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect”, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter on December 29.
“The objective is not to isolate Trump or Israel, ” said a high-ranking French diplomat. Trump also has vowed to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a step the Palestinians strongly oppose. Last January, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that France would recognize a Palestinian state if negotiations fail. Successive U.S. administrations have said the status of Jerusalem – which Israel has declared its “united and eternal capital” but is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians – must be negotiated. “Israel is, has always been and remains our most important ally in the region”, Tillerson told senators. In its communique after the Abbas meeting, the Holy See didn’t refer to Jerusalem by name but said during the talks “emphasis was placed on the importance of safeguarding the sanctity of the holy places for believers of all three of the Abrahamic religions”.
“My hope is the next administration will decide to go”, he said.
This week, US President Barack Obama returned to the subject of settlements in an interview with Israel’s Channel Two.
“When you are president of the United States, you can not take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue”, he said, predicting that it would be “impossible” for Trump to keep his campaign pledge.
But EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the conference’s conclusions on Monday, EU sources said.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who rebuked Israel recently over its settler activity, joined the Paris talks on his farewell tour, along with delegates from the U.N., European Union and Arab League. The Palestinians, Arab nations and others are pushing the issue, fearing the USA move could spark a new conflagration in an already inflamed region.
