Guatemala Faces Arab, Muslim Boycott after Jerusalem Announcement

“We’ll be conducting an overall assessment of all our alliances, and will evaluate our relations based on mutual interests, with a clear eye as to who is genuinely supporting the cause of peace in Palestine and who is against our national interests,” Anees Sweidan, head of external relations at the PLO, told Arab News.

According to the PLO, Guatemala exports annually $300 million worth of cardamom to Arab and Muslim-majority countries.

The Guatemala Export Association sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry calling on the president to rescind his Jerusalem decision, according to the PLO.

The PLO has urged the Arab League to initiate an economic boycott against every country that moves its embassy to Jerusalem.

Former Guatemalan Vice President Edward Stein has warned of the negative repercussions of a boycott on some 45,000 cardamom farmers in his country.

Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales has announced that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first country to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine countries that voted with the United States and Israel when the UN general assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

No other country has their embassy for Israel in Jerusalem, though the Czech Republic has said it is considering such a move.

US President announced early December that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The move was hailed by Israel but condemned by the rest of the international community as one which undermines the peace talks.

Washington’s al-Quds move has raised a chorus of outcry across the international community. The Muslim world, the UN, world leaders from Europe to the Middle East to Australia, and even US allies in the West have criticized the bid, saying it would plunge the already tumultuous region into new upheaval.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a statement issued following an extraordinary summit in Turkey's Istanbul, declared East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine "under occupation" and urged the US to withdraw from the peace process and back down from its Jerusalem decision.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution condemning US President’s decision and called on states not to move their diplomatic missions to the sacred city. Only nine countries voted directly against the resolution, while 56 others either abstained or did not cast a ballot. The UN resolution passed overwhelmingly in the body's General Assembly with 128 countries voting in favor of it. The UNGA vote followed the US veto of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution. All other UNSC members voted in favor of a motion to rescind Trump’s move.