U.S. Embassy Moving To Jerusalem In May For Israel’s 70th Independence Day

The United States Embassy building in Tel Aviv, Israel. Image by JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman February 23, 2018

The Trump administration is accelerating relocation plans of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

After initially announcing the move would take 3-4 years to complete, and then revising the deadline down to 2019, the U.S. is now planning a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new embassy in Jerusalem on May 14 this year.

The date was chosen to coincide with 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence.

The rushed schedule means that at first the embassy will be located temporarily at the existing U.S. consulate in the Arnona neighborhood in West Jerusalem. According to a senior administration official, the temporary location will house Ambassador David Friedman and a small staff, while other operations will continue from the existing embassy building in Tel-Aviv. At the same time, work will continue to locate a permanent compound for the embassy in Jerusalem.

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson has offered to foot the bill for a new embassy in Jerusalem, but there has been no official response to his offer.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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