The U.S. Embassy in Israel will move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday, highlighting a U.S. policy shift that has stoked Palestinian anger and international concern.
The Trump administration's plan to accelerate the move of the embassy, announced in the first address of a sitting American vice president to the Knesset, marked the highlight of Pence's visit celebrating President Donald Trump's Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"Jerusalem is Israel's capital and as such, President Trump has directed the State Department to begin initial preparations to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," Pence told the lawmakers, vowing that the "United States Embassy will open before the end of next year."
He said that with its policy shift on Jerusalem, "the United States has chosen fact over fiction – and fact is the only true foundation for a just and lasting peace."
Shortly after Pence began speaking, several Arab lawmakers voiced their displeasure by raising signs reading, "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine," and heckling the vice president. They were forcibly removed from the plenum.
Pence responded to the fracas by saying with a smile: "It is deeply humbling for me to stand before this vibrant democracy."
Despite the pandemonium, Pence expressed hope that the Palestinians would re-enter negotiations.
"Our message to President [Mahmoud] Abbas and the Palestinian Authority is: The door's open. The door's open. President Trump is absolutely committed to doing everything the United States can to achieve a peace agreement that brings an end to decades of conflict," he said.
Underscoring the unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States, Pence said, "I am here to convey one simple message: America stands with Israel. We stand with Israel because your cause is our cause, your values are our values and your fight is our fight. We stand with Israel because we believe in right over wrong, good over evil and liberty over tyranny."
Noting that in May Israel will mark 70 years since its founding, Pence switched to Hebrew to recite a Jewish prayer of thanksgiving.
The vice president was preceded on the Knesset dais by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lavished his guest with praise and gratitude. It was part of an exceptionally warm welcome for Pence in Israel, which has been overjoyed by Trump's pivot on Jerusalem. But the move has infuriated the Palestinians and upset America's Arab allies as well.
Welcoming Pence to the parliament, Netanyahu said he was the first U.S. vice president to have been accorded the honor.
Israel and the United States "are striving together to achieve a true peace, lasting peace, peace with all our neighbors, including the Palestinians," Netanyahu said.
He reiterated his long-standing demand that the Palestinians recognize "the Jewish people's right to a nation state in its land, a nation-state of its own here in the land of Israel.
Pence said the U.S. would back a two-state solution but only if both sides support it.
Trump's decision on Jerusalem has prompted the Palestinians to declare they no longer see the U.S. as an acceptable mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, frozen since 2014.
Pence said Monday that the administration was "exploring a range of options" on where to locate the embassy.
The embassy is to be opened in an existing U.S. facility that will be "retrofitted" to meet safety and security requirements, Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein told reporters in Washington. He said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had yet to sign off on the safety plan for the new facility but would do so in coming weeks.
The most likely location is in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood, in a modern building that currently handles U.S. consular affairs like issuing passports, birth certificates and travel visas, said a U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. consul general works out of another Jerusalem facility that handles political affairs and diplomatic functions.
The retrofitted building had been originally envisioned as an interim plan that would allow Trump to quickly fulfill his vow to move the embassy.
Yet it was unclear after Pence's speech whether Trump still intended to break ground later on a new embassy elsewhere in Jerusalem or to use the retrofitted one permanently.
"We expect that to be the embassy," Goldstein said of the facility that will open next year. "We do not have a plan at current to build a new embassy."
Pence's speech and especially his statement about the embassy's pending relocation, drew protests from the Palestinians, with chief negotiator Saeb Erekat saying it "has proven that the U.S. administration is part of the problem rather than the solution."
Responding to Pence's speech, Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, "If the United States wanted to a play a role of a mediator in the peace process it must be a fair mediator and it must abide by [international] resolutions."
Ramallah has pre-emptively rejected any peace proposal floated by the Trump administration, fearing it will fall far short of the Palestinians' hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas has also refused to meet with Pence during his visit to the region. In an expression of that snub, Abbas overlapped with Pence in Jordan from Saturday evening to midday Sunday, when the Palestinian leader flew to Brussels for a meeting with European Union foreign ministers, where he urged EU member states to recognize a state of Palestine and step up involvement in mediation.
On Tuesday, Pence visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, ahead of a meeting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
During his meeting with Rivlin, Pence vowed the United States would counter the Iranian nuclear threat. He then headed to the most emotional part of his visit – a tribute to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
Rivlin praised Pence's speech to parliament and his role in pushing for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"You are a mensch," Rivlin told a smiling Pence, using a Yiddish term meaning "a person of integrity and honor."
