Trump To Recognize Jerusalem As Capital Of Israel Next Week
Preisdent Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May during Trump’s visit to Jerusalem. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman December 1, 2017
Trump will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel next week, according to reports from Reuters and Axios. No previous U.S. president has recognized Jerusalem as the capital.
The White House initially denied the reports, then said it had “nothing to announce.”
“The President has always said it is a matter of when, not if,” a White House spokesman told Axios. “The President is still considering options.”
Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem would deviate from the position held by previous U.S. presidents: that Jerusalem’s status should be addressed in peace negotiations. The move could undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to deliver a viable peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Officials told Reuters that Trump will likely continue to continue signing waivers overriding the 1995 law that requires the U.S. to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Officials underscored that no final plan has been made yet, and that Trump may decide to proceed with the embassy’s relocation eventually.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
