World Leaders Condemn US Decision Over Jerusalem, Call it 'Bullying,' 'Authoritarian'

The U.S. decision of choosing Jerusalem as Israel's capital has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders and civil rights groups. 

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The U.N. members at the General Assembly also overwhelmingly voted against the U.S. President Donald Trump's enraging decision and passed a resolution reversing Washington's unilateral decision to declare Jerusalem the Israeli capital. 

“The vote is a victory for Palestine,” Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said. “We will continue our efforts in the United Nations and at all international forums to put an end to this occupation and to establish our Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

The resolution passed during a rare emergency session convened by the Arab countries,  received nine votes against Trump's decision with 35 abstentions, along an overwhelming majority of 128 votes defying Trump's decision, also reflecting a collective disdain aimed at U.S. and Trump's crass attitude. 

Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Jordan which receive most of their aid from the U.S., also defied Trump by voting in favor of the resolution.

Some of the other countries that voted in favour of the U.S. decision include, Guatemala, Honduras, Togo and the Pacific island states of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Palau, are not heavyweights. 

Long-standing U.S. allies Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Japan, and Turkey, also joined forces against the U.S. decision.  While Canada, Mexico, Australia, Colombia, Haiti, Poland and the Philippines abstained from voting.  

Before the debate, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted, "Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey’s democratic will with your dollars." 

"We will not be intimidated. You can be strong, but this doesn’t make you right," Turkey’s foreign minister told the General Assembly.  

Yemen’s U.N. ambassador, Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany who introduced the resolution, called Trump's decision, "a blatant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and the Arab nations, and all Muslims and Christians of the world." 

Calling Trump's decision "authoritarian," Bolivia's President Evo Morales also slammed the U.S. decision,  saying the move "violates international rights and provokes more instability in that region."   

"Mexico does not see it as positive or useful for a unilateral declaration to have taken place to recognize Jerusalem as the capital," Mexico’s ambassador, Juan Jose Gomez Camacho,  said, according to the Washington Post. 

In response to Nikki Haley's comment that the U.S. will be taking names, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki also launched a scathing response, "History records names," he said, adding, "it remembers names — the names of those who stand by what is right and the names of those who speak falsehood. Today we are seekers of rights and peace."