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The Israeli flag flutters in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque and the city of Jerusalem.  (THOMAS COEX / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
The Israeli flag flutters in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque and the city of Jerusalem. (THOMAS COEX / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
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The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) on Tuesday urged the United States “to refrain from recognising Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel”.

“Any such recognition would imperil the internationally-agreed Two-State Solution, destabilise the Middle East region, and invalidate the important role of the United States as an honest broker and driver of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The warning comes as the Donald Trump administration is poised to make a key decision this week on whether to recognise the ancient city as the capital of Israel,

The capital of Israel is Tel Aviv, while Jerusalem is a corpus separatum, or a “separated body” with a special legal and political status.

The international community has widely condemned the pledged by Trump to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

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Washington said this week that may be prepared to postpone that decision or six months.

However, U.S. officials say that the Trump administration might announce recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

The Ralph Gonsalves administration in Kingstown noted that in 1980, in response to an Israeli attempt to declare Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, the United Nations Security Council condemned that declaration as a violation of international law.

The Security Council went on to state that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem . . . are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith,” and that such actions “constitute … a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Kingstown noted it in statement.

It further said that for the past 15 years, the United Nations Security Council has “Affirm[ed] a vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders.”

The international community, in consistently reaffirming the two-state solution, has emphasised that the status of Jerusalem is a “final status” issue to be negotiated by the parties, the government noted.

It said that this position has been reaffirmed in various agreements, including the Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, and the Roadmap for Peace proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East, all of which included the United States as a key interlocutor.

In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly “Reaffirm[ed] the illegality of Israeli actions aimed at changing the status of Jerusalem . . . and all other unilateral measures aimed at altering the character, status and demographic composition of the city. . .”

The United Nations Security Council stated unequivocally in 2016 “that it will not recognise any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations.”

Even more recently, the United Nations Resolution of Nov. 22, 2017 stated that the General Assembly “Reiterates its   determination that any actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever, and calls upon Israel to immediately cease all such illegal and unilateral measures.”

“St. Vincent and the Grenadines is therefore deeply concerned about any attempts to deviate from the settled parameters governing the delicate quest for peace between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine,” the statement said.

“There can be no more destabilising and potentially incendiary deviation than unilateral declarations concerning the status of Jerusalem. The role of the United States as a valued facilitator and interlocutor would be irreparably compromised by any attempt to pre-empt the negotiating process by making unilateral pronouncements on final status issues.”

The statement said that while SVG applauds recent efforts by the United States “to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, we urge that such efforts focus on cessation of illegal Israeli settlement activity in Palestinian territory, the removal of impediments to movement and commerce within the State of Palestine, and the fostering of an environment of trust and goodwill that can stimulate meaningful negotiations between the parties.

“The decades of painstaking work, to say nothing of the lives lost in the conflict, demand mature, responsible and measured action. Accordingly, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines strongly urges the United States of America to acknowledge that any unilateral declaration on its part regarding the status of Jerusalem will not in any way advance the cause of a just, peaceful and lasting solution to the dispute between the peoples of Israel and Palestine,” the statement said.

7 replies on “SVG against US move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”

  1. Nobody cares about or pays attention to what little SVG thinks about international issues.

    By the way, when is our country going to give back to the Garifuna/Kalinago the land illegally taken from them during the Second Carib War, territory now illegally occupied by the state?

  2. Stand with and Bless Israel says:

    Abba Father
    Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
    I declare that I and my immediate family bless and stand with Your people Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, in Jesus name, amen

  3. The entire nation of SVG was illegally and imorally seized from its indigenous inhabitants. Acordingly, the current British-imposed government of SVG has no right to criticise another country — Israel — for its so-called occupation of other people’s lands unless it is willing to discuss returning the land of SVG to its rightful owners many of whom were exiled after the second Carib war. What hypocricy!

    Jerusalem has been modern Israel’s legal capital since 1967. The so-called “occupied territories” are actually disputed territories that were never part of any Palestinian country but were owned and controled by the Turks before been taken over by the British.

    1. The so called Jews were Europeans who migrated to Palestine after world war two and captured the state in 1967 with the help of the US, France, Russia etc. Israel never had any legal ownership over Jerusalem; That’s why there has been negotiations to this day over the status of Jerusalem and it has been the sticking point for a two state solution decades. If C Ben’s silly argument holds, then America has no right recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital unless it gives back the country to the native Indians. You have all been brain washed by the so called Evangelicals who came to St Vincent with two goals in mind; Fight communism and recognition for the state of Israel and your reward? the rapture; When the Jews fully own Israel, then Jesus will come and take the “saved ones” with him. Wonder how all the saved Vincies will get to Israel? well we have a new airport. look at how a moron like Trump used religion to manipulated the fanatics to win the Alabama senate election. Shameful

    2. Every man is a King says:

      I am no fan of SVG pm,but it seems you just want to disagree because the PM of SVG stand against Trump and the state of Israel. Isreal government treatment of the Palestinians are the same way Hitler use to treat the Jews.The Jews of isreal mostly from Europe. God never promise land of isreal to the Jews,so cut that crap out.

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