If the Trump administration recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the move will be met with protests among the Arab citizens of Israel, the deputy head of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement said Monday.
Sheikh Safwat Farig, from the moderate branch of the movement, told The Jerusalem Post that he fears there will be bloodshed in the West Bank and Jerusalem if such recognition is accorded. "We inside Israel will protest in the legal ways, in the legitimate ways, but it's clear it won't be business as usual and we won't sit passively. We will protest opposite the US embassy and make demonstrations inside Israel. That's the minimum we must do." Asked if there would be violence, Farig said, "I hope there won't be inside Israel but I am concerned that in Jerusalem and the West Bank it will spread into unnecessary bloodshed."
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh Malki called Sunday for an emergency meeting of the Arab League amid reports in the US media that Trump is going to deliver a speech on Wednesday in which he will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"What Trump declares is one thing, but there is a Palestinian people on the ground unwilling to accept it," Farig said. "We always thought the US was an unfair mediator. Now we think not only this, but that the US is a party in this conflict. And that is dangerous."
"The biggest enemy is despair," he added. "Some of the Palestinian groups have despaired for a while but the majority give peace a chance." But now, Farig warned, even the "level-headed" Palestinians may be driven to despair. "A desperate person with nothing to lose is the most dangerous to be around and that's what we don't want," he said.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Barakeh, chairman of the main leadership body of Arab citizens, warned against US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in remarks to The Jerusalem Post. "It is dangerous," said Barakeh, head of the High Follow Up Committee. "The Americans are playing with fire because it touches on the capital of the Palestinian people. Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state and this makes it a capital without a heart."
He said a decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital would be "wrong according to international law and in violation of UN decisions. It will completely eliminate the possibility that the US can serve as a mediator in the peace process and it will bring confrontation and combustion of which one cannot know where it will end."
Barakeh said the issue of protests is under consideration, with the Follow Up Committee is waiting to see what the Americans say before taking its decision. "But everything is possible," he said. "This is something for which you can't just go back to business as usual."