22 December 2017•Update: 23 December 2017
By Aydogan Kalabalik, Turgut Alp Boyraz, Furkan Guldemir and Zeynep, Tufekci
ISTANBUL
Thursday’s UN General Assembly resolution on Jerusalem, endorsed by the vast majority of UN member-states, made headlines across the Arab world Friday.
Proposed by Turkey and Yemen, the resolution calls on the U.S. to reverse its recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Of the assembly’s 193 member-states, 128 voted in favor of the resolution, nine voted against and 35 abstained.
The following day, Egypt’s flagship state daily Al-Ahram bore the headline, “Only nine countries oppose Jerusalem resolution.”
The paper went on to quote Israel’s ambassador to the UN as declaring defiantly: “Jerusalem will remain Israel’s capital.”
The Friday headline of left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz, meanwhile, read, “In blow to Trump and Netanyahu, UN rejects US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital”.
The newspaper went on to describe the landmark vote as a “major diplomatic blow” to both Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The headline of Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat (published in London), for its part, crowed, “UN General Assembly rejects Trump’s decision, threats.”
On Dec. 6, Trump unilaterally announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drawing widespread regional and international condemnation.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the perennial Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem -- occupied by Israel since 1967 -- might eventually serve as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
