Palestinians voiced outraged on Friday following reports that the United States plans to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within months, saying the move threatens to destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, said, "Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation, and the U.S. administration must reconsider."
He also called on Muslims to unite against this "despicable decision."
Clashes erupted in Gaza and the West Bank earlier on Friday in a weekly protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on Jerusalem, which has also angered Arab political and religious leaders across the region and dismayed European allies.
Palestinians were particularly irked by Trump's Dec. 6, 2017 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because they envision east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Trump's declaration set the embassy relocation in motion, thereby contravening decades of policy by the international community.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator in peace talks that have been frozen since 2014, said the U.S. move showed a "determination 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."
Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said, "Trump and his team have disqualified the U.S. from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem."
A U.S. official on Friday said the United States was expected to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May. This would be shortly after Israel's 70th anniversary.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called the move "unacceptable."
"Any unilateral move will deprive everyone of legitimacy and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region," he said.
Abbas has rejected U.S.-led Middle East peace efforts as "impossible" since Washington's decision.
Abu Rudeineh said the only way to achieve peace, security and stability was to adopt Abbas' proposal – outlined in an address to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Tuesday – calling for an international conference to kick-start the peace process, including the establishment of a "multilateral mechanism" to oversee it.
Abbas remained in the U.S. for medical exams in Baltimore on Thursday, but headed back to the West Bank over the weekend, Abu Rudeineh said.
Ankara also condemned the move, which the Turkish Foreign Ministry called "highly worrisome."
A Turkish official said the U.S. plan to relocate the embassy "reveals that the U.S. insists on undermining the foundations of peace by disregarding international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem."
"Turkey will sustain its efforts, together with the vast majority of [the] international community, to safeguard the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," the official said.
A number of Israeli lawmakers also condemned the American decision. Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said, "We all want to see Jerusalem recognized as the [Israeli] capital by the nations of the world. But the decision to unilaterally move the embassy will not help [attain] that goal, but will do the exact opposite. If we want all the embassies, not just the American [Embassy], to relocate to Jerusalem, we need to reach a peace agreement, end the occupation and determine agreed-upon and recognized borders."
Joint Arab List MK Yousef Jabareen said the decision was comparable to spitting "in the face of the international community, which in an absolute majority, voted against the Trump declaration."
"The embassy should remain in Tel Aviv, and there is no room for its transfer to Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem will be determined in a comprehensive peace agreement and with the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, as agreed upon by the international community," he said.
