International Issues Can Not Be Resolved On Social Media

On March 21, 2019 President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that the United States would “fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights”, prompting Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian negotiator and the chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization to warn that this announcement would cause more destabilization in the Middle East. According to the article, a lot of people are against this announcement; Druze leaders in Golan Heights calling the U.S President delusional, stating that the announcement does nothing for Golan Heights regarding international law, also expressing that President Trump only made the announcement to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas, the Gaza organization, states that President Trump’s proclamation on Twitter is a violation and a contradiction of what international community stands for, considering it to be an act of aggression to Arab nations. Trump’s “Deal of the Century” caused Israel’s Arab parties to also comment, stating that Trump’s social media declaration is acting against the United Nations resolutions according to United Arab List-Balad, additionally stating that Trump made this decision at the expense of the residents living in Golan and in support of Israeli occupation. United Arab List-Balad also considered this announcement to be in support of the poor and hostile human rights policies made by the Trump Administration. The only person in support of Trump’s announcement was Dimtry Apartzev, the mayor of one of the biggest cities in Golan, Katzrin, saying that the announcement will ‘bring about another leap in the momentum of development of the Golan and Katzrin, its capital”.

The reliability of the data that is in this article relating to President Trump’s comments on Israel’s capital and the sovereignty of the Golan Heights is strong due to the fact that it comes from such a publication like Haaretz and that every talking point is fact checked and sourced. Everything that was specifically discussed throughout the article was factual because it either was a direct quote of what the person was saying or it was paraphrased and linked to the full statement of said person. All facts relating to the Golan Heights and Jerusalem as well as statements made by PLO or other Arab nation officials were all checked and sourced factually from what they were taken from. Such examples such as the use of UN resolution 497, that the Golan Heights is an occupied Arab territory, is a factual and real resolution of the United Nations when it comes to the occupation and sovereignty of the Golan Heights.

The author of this article, “Trump’s Golan Recognition Will Cause Bloodshed, Top Palestinian Negotiator Warns,” is Jack Khoury, a writer for the Haaretz website. Khoury seems to be, throughout his article, a very unbiased and straight to the fact type of writer when it comes to the issues of Palestine and Israel. Writing many other articles related to this topic, Khoury does seem to have a peak interest or experience in the Arab-Israeli conflict and is good at not promoting one side rather than the other. Although you can slightly tell by some of the language he uses that his feelings are more sympathetic to the Palestinian side. When writing for this article, Khoury was decided on the idea of providing very little to no commentary of his own in the article and just sticking straight to the facts, the quotes and where and who they came from. Khoury also seems to have a tendency to write articles regarding the Palestinian leadership or higher ups feelings towards the remarks of the current United States President, Donald Trump. Jack Khoury’s article discussing the reactions and responses of Palestinian, Arab and Israeli leaders to President Donald Trump’s comments was a very unbiased and straight to the point article with no agenda of convincing people to choose a side.

   In December of 2017, the Trump Administration announced that they recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at the disapproval of Palestinians, who had cut ties with the Trump Administration, labeling it unfit to mediate due to bias policies. This past Monday, in the hopes of collaborating on “a single diplomatic mission”, the previous consulate building that predominantly served the Palestinian community in Jerusalem, integrated activities with the United States Embassy. For years this had been the only line for Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem to communicate with the U.S administration. The U.S State Department reassured Palestinian leaders that the merger would not affect the the services open to the leaders, and will continue all services during and after the merge, while the “Palestinian Affairs Unit” will serve Palestine’s living in Jerusalem out of the consulate’s pervious Argon Road location. The move of activities now leaves Palestinians forced to work with the U.S Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who supports illegal building of Israeli homes on Palestinian land, the consulate no longer working as an independent diplomatic mission. The decision was made in order to keep “diplomatic engagements and operations” running smoothly since no decisions or agreements have been made for Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, or the West Bank, according to the U.S Deputy State Department Spokesperson, Robert Palladino. Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Community Member, Hanan Ashrawi, considers this move as a “political assault on Palestinian rights and identity and a negation of the Consulate’s historic status and function”. The U.S is not the only country to move their embassies to Jerusalem, Guatemala and Australia has yet to but it close to finalizing a move. 

   The data in this article regarding what has been said by each side regarding the conflict of the U.S Embassy in Jerusalem is very reliable. All statements that are quoted by official members of the U.S administration are all factual takings of statements made by the individuals from conferences or press releases. Such quotes from U.S Deputy State Department Speaker Robert Palladino and decisions made by the Trump Administration have all be stated in fully covered press conferences over numerous news channels.  All of the organizations discussed such as the PLO and The Palestinian Affairs Unit and what they are doing and their feelings on the move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to be reliable and factual because it is information that has been covered far and wide by news media as well as the coverage of leaders and Trump administration speaking about the issues. 


   Throughout the article you can see that the point of view of the author, Ma’an News Agency, since the author is not listed, is from the perspective of the Palestinian people, but in an unbiased and professional way. A little background, Ma’an News Agency is a Palestinian media company with headquarters in Bethlehem and Gaza, serving as a reliable source for Palestinian and Israeli news since 2005. The article shows unbiased ideals through its use of neutral language as well as quoting sides that he/she may not agree with but want to paint the whole picture. Such comments like, “Palestinians have cut ties with Trump administration…” show the feeling of Palestinian background while also keeping the language respectable and neutral. Compared to other articles on similar topics, such as the BBC News article, US consulate general in Jerusalem merges with embassy, uses more harsher language compared to the Ma’an News Agency. For example, “ A Palestinian official called the move, “the last nail in the coffin of the US administrations role in peacemaking.” 

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=782745


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47442145