❶ Trump informs Palestinian president his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴀ) Senior White House official said that Donald Trump to declare recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴃ) In a phone call by US President Donald Trump, President Abbas rejects intentions‎ to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
. . . . . ❶ ― (ᴄ) Abbas urges UN to stop Trump from recognizing Jerusalem as Israeli capital
❷ Why Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴀ) Trump is proving that the Israeli right was right all along
. . . . . ❷ ― (ᴃ) Why is Trump moving on Jerusalem now?
❸ POETRY by Fadwa Tuqan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
❶ TRUMP  INFORMS  PALESTINIAN  PRESIDENT  HIS  DECISION  TO  MOVE  THE  US  EMBASSY  TO  JERUSALEM
Palestine News Network – PNN
Dec. 6, 2017 ― US President Donald Trump inform Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas his decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv  to Jerusalem.
___Palestinian Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that President Abbas was informed by Trump in phone call that us will move US embassy to Jerusalem.     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴀ)  SENIOR  WHITE  HOUSE  OFFICIAL  SAID  THAT  DONALD  TRUMP  TO  DECLARE  RECOGNITION  OF  JERUSALEM  AS  ISRAEL’S  CAPITAL  ON  WEDNESDAY   
Palestine News Network – PNN  
Dec. 6, 2017 ― A senior White House official said that the U.S. President Donald Trump will declare his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday. While Trump intends to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he will sign a waiver delaying the move by six months, according to American law.
___He explained that Trump’s announcement is a mere acknowledgment of the fact that all Israeli government institutions are already based in Jerusalem, stressing that issues of borders and sovereignty will be determined through negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, ” an acknowledgement of reality seems like an important change.”     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴃ)  IN  A  PHONE  CALL  BY  US  PRESIDENT  DONALD  TRUMP,  PRESIDENT  ABBAS  REJECTS  INTENTIONS‎  TO  MOVE  THE  US  EMBASSY  FROM  TEL  AVIV  TO  JERUSALEM 
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Dec. 5, 2017 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas relayed to the US President Donald Trump in a phone call that he received from the US president at 3:30 p.m. occupied Jerusalem time against the grave consequences of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem or making any announcement that alters the long held US policy regarding Jerusalem.
___ President Abbas reiterated that such a move will have detrimental consequences on the peace process and the prospects for the internationally endorsed two-state solution.
___Furthermore, President Abbas warned of the grave consequences on the stability and security of the region and the world at large.    MORE . . .   ..
.  .  .  .  .  ❶  ―  (ᴄ)  ABBAS  URGES  UN  TO  STOP  TRUMP  FROM  RECOGNIZING  JERUSALEM  AS  ISRAELI  CAPITAL 
Ma’an News Agency   
Dec. 6, 2017 ― Hours before US President Donald Trump is expected to announce his decision to move the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognized the Israeli-occupied city as the official capital of Israel, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, in a last-ditch-effort, is reportedly pleading to the United Nations (UN) to stop the move.
___Official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency reported that Abbas sent an urgent letter to the Secretary-General of the UN demanding the intervention of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to stop Trump for making the declaration.
___In his letter, Abbas said that “this would end the peace process,” which Trump and his administration have attempted to revive in the first year of his presidency, with reports in recent weeks suggesting that the “ultimate peace plan” would be announced soon.
___After days of speculation over whether the US would be moving its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Trump called Abbas on Tuesday and confirmed his intentions to move the embassy.     MORE . . .   ..
❷ WHY  JERUSALEM  IS  NOT  THE  CAPITAL  OF  ISRAEL   
Al Jazeera English      
by Zena Tahhan & Farah Najjar
Dec. 6, 2017 ―US President Donald Trump is expected to call Jerusalem the capital of Israel on Wednesday and begin the process moving his country’s embassy to the city, according to senior US officials.
___The move has sparked global condemnation from world leaders who urged Trump to reconsider the decision.
___Israel occupied East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 War with Syria, Egypt and Jordan; the western half of the holy city had been captured in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
___Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem effectively put the entire city under de-facto Israeli control. Israeli jurisdiction and ownership of Jerusalem, however, is not recognised by the international community, including the United States.
___The status of Jerusalem remains one of the main sticking points in efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.     MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴀ)  TRUMP  IS  PROVING  THAT  THE  ISRAELI  RIGHT  WAS  RIGHT  ALL  ALONG 
+972 Magazine
Noam Sheizaf
Dec. 6, 2017 By recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital the U.S. president is boosting the settlers’ argument that in the long run, ‘facts on the ground’ are more important than diplomacy, and that Israel will eventually win legitimacy for its actions — even unilateral annexation.
___Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan is said to have hesitated before ordering the IDF to conquer the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s Old City in 1967. “What do I need this Vatican for,” he said at one meeting. But even the secular Dayan was swept by the wave of religious euphoria that took Israel after the war. A few weeks later, the government decided to annex the eastern part of the city, along with a sizable territory around it, including over 20 Palestinian towns and villages that had never been part of the city. The size of the annexed land was 10 times bigger than what the Jordanians defined as East Jerusalem during the 19 years they ruled over it.
____ No country has recognized Israel’s unilateral annexation of the territory (and people) of Jerusalem; and since the Oslo process in the 1990s, it was commonly understood that the fate of the city would be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. To complicate things further, Israel didn’t grant East Jerusalemites citizenship; it has kept them as “permanent residents” – a legal status usually meant for immigrants, which deprives them of many rights (most notably, the purchase of state land and the participation in the general elections), and which can be revoked at any moment by the Interior Ministry.  MORE . . .
.  .  .  .  .  ❷  ―  (ᴃ)  WHY  IS  TRUMP  MOVING  ON  JERUSALEM  NOW?
The Middle East Monitor – MEMO  
Ben White
Dec. 6, 2017 ― In comparison to the focus on opposition to the move and its possible ramifications, relatively little has been said about why Donald Trump’s administration has decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and signal its intent to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv.
___For example, one widely-shared piece of analysis does not really answer the question in its title, namely, “Why is Trump undoing decades of US policy on Jerusalem?”
___I believe there are three main reasons, none of which are mutually exclusive.
___First, US domestic politics. Today’s announcement plays well with Trump’s base amongst right-wing Christian evangelicals, as well as with the likes of influential individuals like Sheldon Adelson.
[. . . .] Second, Benjamin Netanyahu, along with other senior Israeli officials, might well have done a good job in persuading the Trump administration to make such a move.
[. . . .] Third – and this is perhaps where many commentators are missing a trick – the Trump administration might well envisage, and justify, the Jerusalem shift in the context of its much-heralded efforts at securing the “deal of the century”.     MORE . . .

“MY  SAD  CITY,”  BY  FADWA  TUQAN
(The day of Zionist Occupation, June 27, 1967)
The day we saw death and betrayal,
The tide ebbed.
The windows of the sky closed,
And the city held its breath.
The day the waves were vanquished, the day
The ugliness of the abyss revealed its true face,
Hope turned to ashes,
And gagging on disaster,
My sad city choked.

Gone were the children and the songs,
There was no shadow, no echo.
Sorrow crawled naked in my city,
With bloodied footsteps,
Silence reigned in the city,
Silence like crouching mountains,
Mysterious like the night, tragic silence,
Burdened,
Weighed down with death and defeat.
Alas! My sad and silent city.
Can it be true that in the season of harvest,
Grain and fruit have turned to ashes?
Alas! That this should be the fruit of all the journeying!
―Translated by A.M. Elmesseri

From BEFORE  THERE  IS  NOWHERE  TO  STAND: PALESTINE ISRAEL POETS RESPOND TO THE STRUGGLE. Ed. By Joan Dobbie and Grace Beeler. Sandpoint ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012. Available from B&N.
Obituary for Fadwa Tuqan, 2003.