US makes an announcement to open new embassy on May 15 2018

News24xx.com -  The US State Department has said that the new US embassy in Jerusalem will open in May 2018, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence.

The foreign ministry called the move as a "historic step" in a statement issued on Friday, February 23, 2018. The announcement means the relocation comes much sooner than expected.

The US Vice President, Mike Pence at the end of January said that the controversial embassy will open in 2019.

The US decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem sparked deadly demonstrations in Palestine and demonstrations of solidarity around the world.

For the Palestinians, May 15 marks as the Day of Nakba, or "catastrophe," when they commemorate the mass transfer of the Palestinians to make way for the state of Israel.

Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians, of a population of 1.9 million, were expelled from or abandoned their homes in Palestine.

A senior Palestinian official told the AFP news agency that the announcement was "a provocation for Arabs" and "a striking violation of international law".

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the outcome would be "the destruction of the two-state option".

Israel Katz, Israel's intelligence minister, thanked Trump for the announcement.

"There is no greater gift than that! This the most appropriate and correct step. Thank you friend!" Katz said in a tweet.

Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948.

Reported from Washington, DC, Rosiland Jordan as quoted by Al Jazeera said it remains unclear where the new embassy will be.

"I am told that the ambassador, David Friedman, as well as some of the attendants, will be in charge of the current consular public building in the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem.

"Additional staff will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem from time to time, but there is still a problem finding the location of a permanent embassy."

Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian information minister, said the decision meant "adding insult to injury".

"When they want to move the embassy exactly on the worst anniversary in the history of Palestinians, the anniversary not of the establishment of Israel but of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the creation of the system of racial discrimination and apartheid ... this represents a very serious provocation to the Palestinian side," he said.

Clashes erupted in Gaza and the occupied West Bank on Friday in a weekly demonstration against the US decision.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in demonstrations against the move since December 6, Palestinian health officials said.

 

 

 

 

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