PA vows to retaliate if US embassy moves to Jerusalem

RAMALLAH, Palestine

A senior member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement has threatened to withdraw the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s recognition of Israel in response to the planned relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Newly-inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump pledged during his electoral campaign to move the embassy to Jerusalem despite reluctance to do so by past administrations.

Speaking to the Voice of Palestine radio station on Tuesday, Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, said the PA planned to adopt a raft of retaliatory measures in the event of the embassy’s relocation.

"One of these steps would be to withdraw recognition of the Israeli state," he said.

"[We would also] demand that Israel recognize Palestine as a state with Jerusalem as its capital," he added.

The Fatah official went on to assert that Palestinians would "escalate their peaceful popular resistance" in response to any embassy move.

Jerusalem remains at the core of the perennial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, as the latter want East Jerusalem -- occupied by Israel for 50 years -- as the capital of a future state.

Although Israel has claimed the city as its "eternal capital" since occupying East Jerusalem in 1967, the international community has never recognized the assertion.

Until now, most foreign diplomatic missions remain based in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

On Monday, the White House announced that "no decisions" had been made on the planned embassy move, saying talks on the issue were still in the "very early stages".

Earlier this month, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. introduced legislation -- which is still winding its way through the Senate -- to relocate the embassy and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Reporting by Qais Abu Samra; Wriring by Mahmoud Barakat