Isreal’s Foreign Ministry hits back at European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini following her criticism of US President Donald Trump’s move, saying continued rejection of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would harm chances for peace.
Speaking earlier, Mogherini said Trump’s “announcement has the potential to send us backwards to even darker times than the ones we are already living in,” reiterating the EU’s policy that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state.
She also called for “an even stronger engagement for peace” during “this difficult moment” and said the bloc will now “engage even more with the parties and with our regional and international partners” in the pursuit of a peace deal.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, speaking to reporters in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 19, 2017. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images via JTA)
The Foreign Ministry in response calls her remarks “surprising.”
“The insistence that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel is a denial of an indisputable historical fact,” it says. “Any denial of this simple truth furthers peace by creating expectations among the Palestinians that are divorced from reality.”
“President Trump took a courageous and just step that advances the chance for peace by speaking the truth,” it adds.
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