On May 14, President Donald Trump among other Republicans including Congressmen and the Vice President opened the new American embassy for Israel in Jerusalem. Why does this matter? The United States became the first country to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is controversial because the Palestinians also want to claim Jerusalem as their capital as well. Therefore, the moving of the American embassy from Tel Aviv has sparked worldwide debate.

The United Nations (UN) passed a resolution criticizing the United States after the move was announced last year. An embassy moving to Jerusalem was seen by many as the death of the peace process. However, the gap between Israeli and Palestinian leadership has been very wide in term of what both sides want. There haven’t been high level discussions of peace for several years as well. Mainly the Palestinian Authority takes issue to Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and the status of East Jerusalem. On the Israeli side, the payment of terrorists’ families and continued violence which has plagued Israel, including a so-called “knife intifada” had already dampened the prospect of peace talks. Additionally, Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been leading marches to tear down the security wall along the border of Israel and Gaza. This has resulted in worldwide criticism of Israeli tactics and behavior even though a Hamas official speaking to Palestinian media reported that 50 of the 62 killed were members of the terrorist organization.

The Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza garner a lot of international sympathy because they’re believed to be an occupied and oppressed people. Currently, Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority do enforce a blockade or embargo on the Gaza Strip. Protests should die down though as the holy holiday of Ramadan begins. However, only time will tell if Hamas will come to the table with both the Israelis and Palestinian Authority to hammer out a solution to the humanitarian crisis.

The embassy is a signal to Israel that Trump has the back of its ally. Also, the administration believes by taking Jerusalem off the table, it will get rid of a key complain the Palestinians have with the peace process. The Palestinians maintain though that an embassy in Jerusalem is unacceptable until a final decision is made on the Palestinian state. Therefore, they don’t believe the United States can be a trusted mediator between the parties to end the conflict. The conflict may never end, but people are seeing a clearer road of what the future holds in store; that’s what the embassy signifies.