United States president Donald Trump has threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that back a United Nations resolution opposing the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Earlier this month, Mr Trump took that step amid international criticism.
The leaders of 57 Muslim nations have called on the world to recognize “the State of Palestine and East Jerusalem as its occupied capital”. An Organization of Islamic Co-operation communiqué declares US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize the city as Israel's capital as “null and void”. It also says the move has signaled Washington's withdrawal from its role in the Middle East peace process.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said Great Britain disagrees with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem, as the Israeli capital, and underlines that Jerusalem should be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states. She added that the UK embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and there are no plans to move it.
In a momentous shift of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday and initiated the process of relocating the U.S. embassy to the city from Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and direct the State Department to begin the lengthy process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city, according to senior Trump administration officials. The announcement, which is expected at 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, comes amid global condemnation of the move.
Israel has said it will join the US in pulling out of the UN's cultural organization Unesco, after US officials cited anti-Israel bias. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US decision as brave and moral, a statement said.
Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely defended the appointment of former settlements' department director, Dani Dayan, as the Jewish state's ambassador in Brazil, after it was rejected by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Two 19th-century nuns on Sunday became the first Palestinians to gain sainthood during an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St Peter's Square attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
In a move likely to further inflame tensions with Israel’s Arab citizens, a divided Israeli Cabinet approved a bill to legally define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Sweden has recognized the State of Palestine, the country’s foreign minister has announced, making it the first European Union country to do so. The 130 other nations that already recognize a Palestinian State include Hungary, Slovakia and Poland although these three countries took this step before joining the EU.