PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
RECOGNITION OF JERUSALEM AS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL (6 December 2017)

That this House notes with dismay that Donald Trump, President of the USA, has declared that the US has formally recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the US Embassy in Israel will relocate from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; further notes that no other country currently has an embassy in Jerusalem, and the international community, including the US until now, does not recognise Israel's jurisdiction over and ownership of the Eastern part of that city; acknowledges Jerusalem's status as an extremely sensitive aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which it considers will be antagonised by this move; further acknowledges that the final status of Jerusalem is to be determined by negotiation; notes that East Jerusalem is intended to be the capital of a future Palestinian state, but that East Jerusalem is currently occupied by Israel; considers that this decision was taken against the advice of a wide range of world leaders and breaks with years of precedent; further considers that the announcement itself may lead to unrest in the Middle East and that the longer term consequences are unpredictable; condemns in the strongest possible terms what it considers to be a rash, unnecessary and deliberately inflammatory act, and one which destroys the US's credibility as an honest broker in the Middle East Peace Process; and calls on world leaders to put pressure on the President to reverse this ill-advised decision.

Sponsored by:
Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party)