1. Eleven months after his inauguration as President of the United States of America, former US President Donald Trump said on December 6, 2017, that Israel is a sovereign state, and has the right, like any other sovereign state, to determine its capital, and that recognizing this as a reality is a necessary condition for achieving peace.

In his famous announcement, Trump said, “Today we finally recognize the obvious: Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. This is nothing more than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do.”

In the same announcement, Trump instructed the US State Department to prepare for the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and indicated that contracting with architects, engineers and planners would begin immediately so that the new embassy - when completed - would be a magnificent tribute to peace.

Israel's hand is free..

This announcement was not surprising from a person like Trump, and the people of Jerusalem did not count on his administration or the previous and subsequent American administrations.

Although the Judaization of Jerusalem and the violation of the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque is an old Israeli policy that has been followed since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Trump’s declaration has given Israel more freedom to implement its racist plans and policies in the occupied city.

With Trump assuming a new term after winning the presidential elections over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, Al Jazeera Net asked academic and expert on Israeli affairs Muhammad Halsa about his expected positions on Jerusalem and the holy sites over the next four years.

Halsa began his speech by saying, “We have a long experience with Trump’s relationship with Israel, specifically with Netanyahu, when he offered him a number of privileges, one of which was the title deed regarding the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and the important privilege related to moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in addition to fabricating the path of the Abraham Accords and dragging Arab regimes into normalizing relations with Israel.”

Halsa stressed that President Trump's ideological positions, his general arrogant behavior, and everything he did during his first term were fundamentally reflected on the Palestinian issue, and will be reflected this time as well due to his positions and considerations regarding everything that is happening on the one hand, and due to his view of the Arab world, which feels liberated from its need for him on the other hand.

More escapism..

Halsa added, "During his new term, we will see more licentiousness towards everything that is Arab and Islamic, and this licentiousness will also be reflected towards Jerusalem in particular and the Israeli desires therein, and the right that rules in Israel will intersect with the licentiousness of the right-wing force that will rule the United States, represented by Trump, the Republican Party, and the Christian right as well."

This will lead, according to academic Halsa, to the continuation of the Israeli expansion in the region, and to the breaking of the Arabs and Muslims in light of the weak, silent and defeated Arab position in the face of the Israeli advance.

“The Arabs have proven over the course of more than a year of genocide in Gaza that they are unable to impose a position on Israel to prevent it from at least stopping the massacres it is committing. If Netanyahu and his right wing decide to implement their agenda in the Holy City and Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular, Trump will not feel threatened by the Arab and Islamic world, as he has evidence of what happened over the past year,” according to Halsa.

The Jerusalemite researcher and academic believes that “within the framework of the exchanges that will take place between Trump and Netanyahu, it is possible that the latter will offer Trump a gift by stopping the war, and in return Trump will promise him privileges related to normalization with other countries, or the annexation of the West Bank, or a qualitative leap in the issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Halsa believes that Al-Aqsa will be in the eye of the storm, and that Jerusalem will witness new violations because Trump will go to any lengths to impose the Israeli narrative, and what could push him to retreat - such as if US interests were threatened by Arab pressure and position - is absent and non-existent, and therefore he will not hesitate to say that Jews have the right to pray in a special and independent place in Al-Aqsa Mosque by imposing spatial division at an official level.

"No Arab regime will say no to Trump, and the movement of peoples in the Arab world is now zero. Will Al-Aqsa be more valuable than tens of thousands of lives being lost in front of the cameras? Certainly not, unfortunately," the Israeli affairs expert adds.

Al-Aqsa division..

The same spokesman concluded by saying that during Trump's second term, "we will witness a complete spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and this will not be announced only through the pages of Temple activists, but it may be announced officially, which will be considered a great achievement for the ruling Israeli right, and changes may be implemented on the ground by cutting off an area through placing barriers and barriers, similar to what was imposed in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron."

As for the Jerusalemite writer and political analyst Rasem Obeidat, he told Al Jazeera Net that Trump’s policy is more consistent with Israeli policy, and both parties will continue to violate and contravene international law during the next four years, as they did during the first term, because there is no one to deter them.

Obaidat does not believe that Trump will exert serious pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war, but rather will be more generous than the Biden administration in financial, political and military support, "and this will inevitably be reflected in the issue of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, which witnessed many unprecedented violations during the year of war."

About Al Jazeera