La política de Trump ante el conflicto israelo-palestino a la luz del Derecho internacionalun balance positivo

Abstract

President Trump radically changed the course of US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict developed by the Obama Administration. Several elements of Obama’s policy, in particular his position on Iran and on the admission of Palestine as a member of the UN, had strained relations with the Israeli government. The Trump Administration, in contrast, had given its formal backing to different Israeli policies and de facto situations not recognised by the international community. Among others, mention should be made of the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Beyond the controversy generated by these measures, the application filed by Palestine in the ICJ against the United States for the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem raises important legal questions in an extraordinarily intricate area. At the same time, one of the preliminary issues that the Court will have to address is the legal standing of Palestine, as only states can invoke the Court’s contentious jurisdiction. Finally, mention should be made of the «peace plan of the century» proposed by Trump for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was rejected by the Palestinian leaders, though assessed by Biden in favourable terms at the moment. At the same time, we should bear in mind the conclusion of the so-called «Abraham agreements», which mark the recognition of Israel by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and the beginning of relations between them. The future will tell which option is followed by the other Arab Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran and Turkey. Although these last two powers disagree on some aspects, such as religion, they may eventually join forces to support certain policies and influence certain Arab countries, such as Qatar and Syria.