Abstract

President Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israelhas been condemned across Arab and predominantly Muslim countries. Basedon the documentary analysis, this study analyses the reasons for DonaldTrump’s decision, its implication and consequences for Palestinian peaceprocess.It is found that President Trump was following through on his majorcampaign promise to recognize Jerusalem and was simply implementing theCongress decision to relocate Jerusalem. The argument that this decision willadversely affect the role of the US as an honest broker in Israel-Palestine conflictis untenable. The US has never been an impartial moderator and has sidedwith Israel militarily, economically and politically. The peace-process did notmaterialise simply because Israel was not willing to concede to an independentPalestinian state and because the US was not willing to exert pressure on Israelto agree to a two-state solution.