The United States on Monday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the U.S. to rescind its recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The other 14 members of the Security Council voted to approve the Egyptian-drafted resolution.

While the Trump administration has been firm in its commitment to go through with the unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, today the United Nations Security Council will vote on a resolution against the move, pushing the U.S. president to take back the controversial recognition. In response to the U.S.’s anticipated veto, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), plans to get the resolution taken to the General Assembly through the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism in the UN, which was created to deal with stalemates in the Security Council.

Hanukkah is a holiday of Jewish liberation from occupation 2150 years ago. But Jews cannot celebrate the Jewish holidays as a matter of the ancient past at a time when Israel continuously presses its ‘Jewish liberation’ upon the besieged Palestinians, who are crushed under the boot of the ‘most moral army’.

Democrats usually jump at opportunities to counter Trump’s reckless and incendiary policies. That is, when the policies don’t have to do with the state of Israel.

American UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says that recognition of Jerusalem is about ‘not picking sides’. Yes, she and Trump are behaving recklessly. But they are continuing a policy of pandering to Israel that has been going on for many decades, under the mask of ‘peace talks’ and a supposed ‘honest broker’, the US.

Protests came to a head across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday, as Palestinians took the streets against U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One youth leader tells Mondoweiss they would have been much larger if the Palestinian Authority had not been involved: “The people are not happy with Abbas right now, and if the protests were not being launched by the PA and Fatah I think we would see massive participation, but right now people are feeling angry and a bit lost as to how we should be reacting.”

Nada Elia writes, “Trump’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel did not kill the two-state solution.  That ‘solution’ never had a chance. Palestine, like justice, is indivisible. Trump’s declaration merely pushed aside any pretense at objectivity, neutrality, fairness, or ‘process.'”

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.