Palestinians Say Trump Backing Off From Embassy Move to Jerusalem

A senior Palestinian official, Ahmed Majdalani, said that officials in the Trump Administration have sent messages that moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is not high on the President’s agenda. Majdalani, a senior advisor to Palestinian Authority President Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the new US Administration plans instead to focus on restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. In his first press conference this week, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said no decision had been made on relocating the embassy, despite repeated promises from Trump that it would be one of his first priorities. The incoming US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman owns an apartment in Jerusalem, and there has been speculation that he would work out of his apartment rather than out of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. Palestinians have warned that a decision to move the embassy could have diplomatic consequences and could even spark violence. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 in a move that has not been accepted by the international community, which says that the future of Jerusalem must be determined by negotiations.