Hardly a week goes by without the Trump administration taking another swipe at Palestinians. Two days ago it was announced that the US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, a de facto American embassy to the Palestinians, will be closed.
The separate closure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation mission in Washington last month was clearly aimed at Palestinian leaders. But the shutting of the consulate is dismissive of an entire people and sends four terrible messages.
First, this will make it considerably more difficult for ordinary Palestinians to access US consular services like applying for visas. Like so much of what the Trump administration has done over the past year, it reflects a considerable hostility towards all Palestinians.
That was already fully articulated in the decision to strip Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem of US funding, among other gratuitous cruelties.
It effectively says that Palestinians are not a people worthy of dedicated consular relations.
To the contrary, if they want to deal with American diplomats, Palestinians can try to get to Israel to go to the US embassy in West Jerusalem, if they possibly can (but will often be unable to). And if not, the obvious corollary is that they must only have themselves to blame.
Second, this strongly consolidates the idea that, as Donald Trump keeps saying, all of Jerusalem is "off the table" in any future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations because it essentially belongs entirely to Israel, and, as he recently added, "we don't have to talk about it anymore".
Having a US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem might have been misconstrued, after all, as suggesting that there was some kind of independent Palestinian status in the city. It might even have been interpreted as suggesting that Palestinians could still aspire to base their capital in East Jerusalem.
This is an idea that Mr Trump's "Middle East peace team", led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been striving to eliminate.
Closing the consulate for the Palestinians is a kind of epilogue or annex to the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the moving of the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Just in case anyone still held any hopes that Washington remained open to brokering, let alone committed to, a compromise on Jerusalem, this plainly signals that it is not.
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Read more from Hussein Ibish:
Nikki Haley was no voice of reason
Trump has destroyed the Palestinian peace process
Palestinians should counter US assault by strengthening civic society
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Third, this move alarmingly consolidates the authority of David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, who will now also be in charge of consular services for the Palestinians.
Mr Friedman has played a key role in driving US policy in the Trump administration firmly into the arms of a "greater Israel" and settler movement, of which he is a major proponent.
Most ambassadors don't play a role in shaping policy. But Mr Friedman is the highest-ranking State Department official to take any interest in Palestinian issues and, in partnership with Mr Kushner, he has effectively dismissed Palestinians, their human rights and national interests.
As long as there was a consulate in occupied East Jerusalem dedicated to serving the Palestinian population that was independent of Mr Friedman's control, a remnant of balance in US diplomacy might have persisted. But now all US diplomacy in Israel and the occupied territories is under the direct control of this ardent backer of settlements and avowed opponent of any form of two-state outcome.
Fourth, this latest move reinforces the growing – and by now virtually inescapable – conclusion that Mr Trump, Mr Kushner, Mr Friedman and those working with them have an overriding goal, which is the destruction of any diplomatic and negotiating framework inherited from the two decades-old Oslo Accords.
With no negotiations or any progress for a long time through the Oslo process, a fresh approach was undoubtedly necessary, just as Mr Kushner argued.
But rather than building on what already existed, Mr Kushner and his team have instead been frantically destroying the structures that produced the limited gains of the Oslo framework, ones which at least kept alive the prospects for an eventual peace accord.
It's become clear that their main goal is to wreck the existing diplomatic and political architecture so thoroughly that even if their own "peace plan" goes absolutely nowhere – as now seems inevitable, thanks largely to their anti-Palestinian vendetta – no successor administration would be able to resuscitate the two-state-orientated Oslo formula.
The real target, then, is the very notion of Palestinian sovereignty and any remaining hopes for a Palestinian state.
The Trump administration's intervention has thus far been utterly destructive, aimed at wiping out Jerusalem and refugees as issues, impoverishing and humiliating ordinary Palestinians, granting Israel endless victories without asking anything in return and making US commitments that will be very difficult to reverse but which ensure that no meaningful negotiations can proceed.
There are no longer any grounds for attributing this nihilistic rampage to naivete or ignorance. It's cynically, wilfully and unforgivably destructive of any hopes for progress towards peace. And when despair over negotiations leading to increasing spates of violence, as is already emerging on the Gaza border, the authors of this policy will bear a heavy responsibility for the lives needlessly lost.
Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington
Honeymoonish
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The Lowdown
Us
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseqph, Evan Alex and Elisabeth Moss
Rating: 4/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche
“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox
“I think I’d buy a defunct footwear brand; I’d like the challenge of reinterpreting a brand’s history and changing options.” Kris Balerite
“I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
HOW TO WATCH
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