Trump’s Jerusalem Statements open up a new front for transnational jihadists

Last week, the US president made the controversial statement that the US now considers Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and plans to move its embassy there. Not surprisingly, this has caused unrest among Palestinians living in the occupied areas. The seriousness of the situation, however, is not the rage from the locals, but the external forces that this decision triggers. During the past week, we have seen how jihadist movements from around the world are calling for fighters to take part “in the defense of Palestine”.

Bayt al-Maqdis or Jerusalem is not a new component in the mobilization slogans of Islamists. The religious revival in the 1970’s, where religio-political movements across the Middle East challenged the prevailing secular pan-Arabism, came after Israel had seized the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Observers of political Islam agree that particularly the Six Day War in 1967 was a turning point for the development throughout the Middle East. The rise of islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, has been explained with reference to the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also with the lack of any political solution to the conditions that Palestinians and Palestinian refugees have been living under during a half-century. The critique of secular regimes across the Middle East was put forward by new movements expressing religious nationalism, and in this the case of Palestine was a key reference.

According to Bruce Lawrence, Professor in Islamic Studies, also Osama Bin Laden explained his own political awakening with reference to 1973, where the American Airlift facilitated the Israeli victory over Egypt and Syria (the Yom Kippur War). While his armed fight started in Afghanistan (to fight the Russian-backed regime) in the 1980’s, he continued to organize the Arab Afghan veterans in the 1990’s: this time against Saddam Hussain upon his invasion of Kuwait. Bin Laden adopted the criticism of Western-led marionettes in the Middle East, and attracted volunteers from around the world with his writings, giving rise to the phenomenon we today know as transnational jihad.

While the case of Palestine and the atrocities committed by the shifting Israeli regimes has never completely left the recruitment materials of Islamist movements, it hasn’t been the center of attention for the past decades. It has rather been mentioned as an addendum to other cases of Western interference in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya to name a few of those conflict zones that have gained most attention recently. But with Trump’s latest statements on Jerusalem, Palestine is most likely back on the agenda as a strong mobilizing case for jihadist movements. In the meantime, we have another political reality than the 1960’s and 1970’s when other regimes such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria were directly involved in the conflict with Israel. Instead, transnational jihadist movements like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State will be waiting to take over “the battle for the Palestinians” as they have done in other places where atrocities committed against Muslims has gained global public attention (as it was recently the case with the persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar).

As we know that transnational jihadists are trying to exit Syria – some of them returning to their home countries while others are looking for new battlefields – Trumps Jerusalem statements stand as an open invitation for them to enter Israel/Palestine. This is the seriousness of the matter – a situation that is not just “business as usual” but can end up escalating the conflict and worsening the tragedy for the Palestinians by justifying further extraordinary Israeli security measures that hits the civil Palestinian population.

We already see how jihadist movements from around the world are actively calling for fighters in response to Trumps Jerusalem declaration. To name a few:

• Al-Qaeda in North Africa has issued a statement asking all fighters to make the liberation of Palestine their "central cause".
• Al-Qaeda/Aymen al-Zawahiri from Pakistan has called on Muslims to strike the "vital" interests of America and its allies.
• The Kashmir-based jihadi group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind has called on Muslims all over the world to attack U.S. and Israeli embassies and harm corporate and financial interests of both countries.
• The Egypt-based Hasam Movement (Harakat Sawa’ed Misr) has called for an uprising.
• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has called on Muslims to support Palestinian fighters with money and weapons.
• The Afghan Taliban has called the move a US demonstration of "anti-Muslim bigotry".
• The Shabaab has urged Muslims to respond with weapons.

If the transnational jihadists are successful in claiming “the battle for Bayt al-Maqdis” and if they manage to enter the areas, it will stand clear: Firstly, that a conflict – in order to be contained - needs sober resolution-attempts where both parties feel recognized, not just one party. As we have seen during the past days, this is interpreted as yet another slap in the face of the Palestinians who once again “got nothing” while Israel was granted Jerusalem. Secondly, if we want to fight instability and political unrest, the international community should act against human rights violations, which means consistently sticking to and sanctioning the breach of international conventions wherever there are consistent reports of violation. There is no point reiterating reports upon reports over the past decades stating that violations against Palestinian, or illegal settlements, are not acted upon. Finally, we will learn that interference from external states (like the Trump Jerusalem declaration) escalates a conflict, inviting other external actors: this time transnational jihadists. Recent peace research, e.g. coming out of Uppsala University, shows that transnationalisation of conflicts hardens conflict-resolution, so here we are again, caught in an evil security-spiral where the transnationalization process and the “we can’t negotiate with terrorists” will make it even harder to find solutions where the Palestinians would feel that their rights are being taken seriously.