December 6, 2017

Trump Announces US Will Recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital

The declaration is expected to spark violence in the region.

Ting Shen/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that the United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision that breaks longstanding US foreign policy and is expected to provoke widespread protests in the Middle East. The declaration, he said in a press conference from the White House, “marks the beginning of a new approach to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”

“I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump said.

The president also said that he has given orders for officials to start planning the process to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Ahead of the expected announcement, Arab leaders and other heads of state had cautioned against the controversial declaration, warning that the move could destroy any chances of brokering a peace deal between Israel and Palestine. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been seen as a close ally of Trump’s, described the issue on Tuesday as a “red line” for Muslims around the world.

Responding to international concern over Trump’s intentions, administration officials earlier this week characterized the impending declaration as a “recognition of reality.” 

“It’s not an impediment to peace and it’s not a facilitator to peace,” a senior administration official told CNN. “After having tried this for 22 years, an acknowledgment of reality seems like an important thing.”

Trump on Wednesday echoed those remarks, calling the decision “nothing more or less than a recognition of reality.” He added, “It is also the right thing to do. It has to be done.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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