Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem

A PINE grove in south Jerusalem has remained untouched for decades. This is the site reserved for America’s embassy in Israel (pictured). But like every other country that recognises the Jewish state, America has its embassy in Tel Aviv rather than the holy city. Donald Trump may change that.

He was not the first American presidential candidate to promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem in line with the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which was passed by Congress in 1995. But every president since has signed a national-security waiver suspending the act, arguing that Jerusalem’s status will be determined only after a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Although Israel has considered Jerusalem to be its capital since December 1949, most other countries cling to the UN resolution from 1947 that divided Palestine to create the Jewish state. It said that Jerusalem should remain a corpus separatum, or separate entity belonging to no country.

Mr Trump’s representatives have, however, said that he intends to move the embassy. Last week he named David Friedman as ambassador to Israel. A bankruptcy lawyer, Mr Friedman is an outspoken supporter of the Israeli far right, has donated money to Jewish settlements in occupied territories and says that members of J Street, a liberal Jewish organisation, are “far worse than Kapos” referring to Jewish collaborators in Nazi concentration camps. On October 27th Mr Friedman told a gathering in Jerusalem that the State Department “has been anti-Semitic and anti-Israel for the past 70 years”. If its staff were to oppose moving the embassy, they would be fired by Mr Trump, he said.

The prospect of the embassy’s move has been greeted with jubilation by members of Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and by dire warnings from the Palestinians. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Authority official, said it would “destroy the peace process” and launch the region on a “path of chaos”.

Yet it may also revive moribund talks. “Trump has already shown he is prepared to shake things up,” says a veteran Israeli diplomat. “Maybe moving the embassy could actually be shock therapy to the peace process and bring the sides back to the table.”