Web Desk (May 07, 2018): ‘US Embassy’ road signs set up in Jerusalem on Monday as US Mission will be opened next week in the city.
The signs, in English, Hebrew and Arabic, were installed by workmen close to the south Jerusalem location of a US consulate building that will be re purposed as the embassy when it is officially relocated from Tel Aviv on May 14.
In December, US President Trump called Jerusalem the capital of Israel and launched the process to transfer his country’s embassy to the city.
The move prompted international condemnation and triggered a wave of protests in the Palestinian territories.
In June 2017, however, like his predecessors, Trump signed a six-month waiver to delay the relocation, which would have complicated US efforts to resume the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The White House said at the time that the question is “not if that move happens, but only when”.
The move overturns decades of international consensus on Jerusalem, a highly contested city, half of which was occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 War.
The international community, including the US, does not recognize Israel’s jurisdiction and ownership of the city.
Palestinians say that moving the embassy would prejudge one of the most sensitive issues in the conflict – the status of Jerusalem – and undermine the US’ status as an honest mediator.
President Abbas has warned that the move would have a “disastrous impact on the peace process, on the two-state solution and on the stability and security of the entire region”.
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