Ramallah, Oct 03: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has criticised a US bill passed into law this week as "a catastrophe" because it calls for moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Most of the international community, including the United States, has never recognised Israel's annexation of territory it captured in East Jerusalem in 1967, making it part of the country's capital.
US officials say Jerusalem's ultimate status should be determined in peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

A move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem would be seen as recognition of Israel's claim to the entire city and would challenge Palestinian aspirations to set up the capital of their own future state in the city.

"It is a catastrophe. We can't stay silent," Arafat said at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"It can't be accepted at all, for the Christians and for all the Muslims," Arafat said. "I am asking the American administration and the American president to stop this." Bureau Report