On 28 January 2020, US President Donald Trump released a proposed map for a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, which sets up a still long-shot chance for a recognised Palestinian state.
Trump’s map proposes establishing a country with a capital in East Jerusalem, as well as a tunnel connecting the West Bank to a separate portion of the country along the shores of the Mediterranean.
“This is what a future State of Palestine can look like, with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem,” Trump wrote on his Twitter.
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has taken massive amounts of land, with major gains coming during the Six-Day War in 1967 when it captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal. In the ensuing decades, Israel has proceeded with settlements across the West Bank even as Palestinian leaders have claimed those areas to be illegal.
Under the proposed rule from the Trump administration, no Israeli or Palestinian people would be relocated, effectively legitimising those settlements that critics call illegal, but would also freeze Israeli settlement construction for at least four years. The capital of Israel would become Jerusalem — which Trump has pledged recently will be “undivided” — while the potential Palestinian state would be on East Jerusalem, beyond the border.