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US Senate calls on Trump to move Israel embassy

US President Donald Trump (Photo by AFP)

The US Senate has called on President Donald Trump to move the US embassy in the occupied Palestinian lands to Jerusalem al-Quds, a controversial campaign pledge that he has failed to fulfill so far.

Senators voted 90-0 on Monday night to approve a resolution that marked the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War and urged Trump to uphold the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which required then-President Bill Clinton to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

“Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected,” the measure stated, while advocating a two-state solution for the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the resolution’s chief sponsor said its bipartisan passing showed “the United States’ commitment to standing by our Israeli friends.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the left-leaning pro-Israel group J Street also hailed the resolution.

Clinton and his successors, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, all refused to enact the law by signing six-month waivers of it.

Trump also practiced his powers to waive the legislation on Thursday, in what the White House argued was a strategic step to keep hopes up for a possible two-state solution.

"While President Donald J. Trump signed the waiver under the Jerusalem Embassy Act and delayed moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the President's strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance," the White House said in a statement.

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Most of the world does not recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital and the city is considered occupied territory.

A potential move of the embassy would anger Palestinians, who have been seeking to form an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds and the Gaza Strip, with East al-Quds as the capital.

They also want the Tel Aviv regime to withdraw from the Palestinian lands and return to the 1967 borders.

While Trump’s postponement of the embassy move was welcomed in Palestine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t hide his disappointment.

"Israel's consistent position is that the US Embassy, as well as the rest of the embassies, should be in Jerusalem," his office said in a statement.


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