Though Jerusalem’s nearly 350,000 Palestinians were barely featured in Donald Trump’s 12-minute-long speech, it is their livelihoods, that will likely be impacted the most as a result of US declaration to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “If these decisions really go into effect, my life here in Jerusalem will become like a prison,” Abdullah Abu Jumua, 19, told Mondoweiss on Wednesday night, moments after the announcement. “I will not accept a reality in which I am living in my homeland, but under the name of another country,” the teenager said, “Jerusalem is ours and no one can take it from us.”

Mahmoud Abu Salama of We Are Not Numbers documents protests in Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp over Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Protests and clashes erupted across the West Bank and Gaza following Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Between 1000 and 2000 Palestinians protested at al Manara square in Ramallah where a 32-year-old male protestor, holding back tears and catching his breath through tear gas inhalation, told Mondoweiss the Palestinian people and leaders refuse Trump’s decision. “We will continue with these clashes until Trump reverses his decision,” he said.

Since the start of this year, 20 Palestinian patients from the Gaza Strip died due to an Israeli ban on their travel, Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed. 

Youth in Gaza respond to President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City. “Hearing the news that the United States will declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel feels like some stranger has assaulted me in my home. It hurts deep in the heart,” writes Nedaa Al-Abadlah.

President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel this afternoon in a much anticipated speech at the White House, followed by condemnations from Palestinian leaders who said Trump is unfit to be a peace broker and effectively killed the two-state solution.  

President Donald Trump will make a statement at 1:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern time where he most likely will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite much international condemnation.

Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and getting architects busy on designing the new U.S. embassy represents a special new challenge for supporters of the two-state solution. While Trump gave lip service to such an outcome, his moves are such a rebuke to Palestinians and their Arab neighbors that they have destroyed any credibility the U.S. claimed to have as a broker and made it impossible for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with the United States– even mainstream analysts said on the cable news networks today.

Yossi Gurvitz writes: “As these words are written, I have no idea just what sort of proclamation Trump will issue today regarding Jerusalem. But the signs are not good. My government is about to be given a surprise gift by Trump, and it does not care that dozens are likely to die.”

No one is pushing Trump to move the Embassy to Jerusalem, so he’s doing it so he can blame someone else — an Arab explosion — for the failure of his peace initiative in Israel and Palestine, says Shibley Telhami. But Telhami leaves out the fact that Trump’s biggest donor, Sheldon Adelson, wants the U.S. to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.