US Vice President Mike Pence arrives in Israel on Dec. 20. Although the original aim of his visit was to pave the way for presentation of an American peace initiative, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has already announced that Pence is not welcome and senior Palestinians would not meet with him as a result of President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The highlight of Pence’s Israel trip will be a visit to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site and a flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
A senior White House official briefing Israeli reporters explained that the Trump administration could not envision any scenario in which the wall “would not be part of the State of Israel” in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. He added that Pence’s visit to the Western Wall, unlike Trump’s May 22 stop, will not be private but an official visit in his role as vice president.
For the Palestinians, the White House comments about the wall and Pence's visit to the site, adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, are adding fuel to the violent protests that were ignited in the West Bank and Gaza by Trump’s declaration. Abbas announced that the US position on Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall, located in the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of the city, underscores once again that the Trump administration is not fit to play any role in the peace process. In other words, there’s no point discussing negotiation with Israel, and certainly not with US mediation.
Several hours after he spoke, Abbas’ Fatah movement announced that its leaders had conferred and decided to continue the “day of rage” protests launched in the West Bank following Trump’s proclamation. They intend to escalate the protests during Pence’s visit to the Western Wall on Wednesday night. Senior Fatah official Qadura Fares told Al-Monitor that despite Trump’s pledge that Jerusalem’s final borders would be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, his official recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital followed by the White House position on the wall clearly mark the city’s future boundaries.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
