US senators push bill to mark 50 years since Jerusalem reunification

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of US senators are pushing for a resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

Co-sponsored by 17 senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), the text calls on the legislative body to recognize the half a century landmark since Israel captured the eastern part of the city during the 1967 Six Day War.

“Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected,” it states, adding that “there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem for 3 millennia.”

It also says that “Jerusalem is a holy city and the home for people of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths.”

Advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, the resolution now goes the Senate floor, where the entire chamber will vote on it.

Senators are pushing this measure just as US President Donald Trump formally deferred — at least for now — his campaign pledge to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital.

On Thursday, he signed a waiver that defers a Congressional mandate to relocate the American embassy. The 1995 law provides the president with the prerogative to postpone the move on national security grounds. Each of Trump’s three immediate predecessors — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — repeatedly exercised that right.

In announcing the decision, the White House said Trump was not fulfilling his campaign pledge because he wanted to “maximize the chances of successfully negotiating a deal between Israel and the Palestinians,” something he’s been pursuing since assuming office.

The White House further tried to assure that Trump would still move the embassy eventually. “The question is not if that move happens, but only when,” a statement from Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The Senate Resolution “reaffirms the Jerusalem Embassy Act” — the law mandating the move — and “calls upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions.”

It also supports a two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which “can only be achieved,” the text reads, “through direct, bilateral negotiations without preconditions.”

Schumer, the Democratic leader and one of the most prominent Jewish members of Congress, released a statement that implored the US to recognize Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital.

“I am proud to sponsor this resolution, which reaffirms the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that states Jerusalem should remain an undivided city and Israel’s capital – in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are celebrated, valued and protected,” he said.

“The resolution also affirms our longstanding policy to achieve peaceful coexistence via direct negotiations that achieve a two-state solution.”

Such language also runs in stark contrast to a UNESCO resolution last month — titled “Occupied Palestine” — that suggested Israel has no sovereign claim to Jerusalem.

The United States scolded that document. “Once again, the United States rejects the adoption of these anti-Israel resolutions at UNESCO,” a US official told The Times of Israel. “Like other parts of the UN system, UNESCO is too often used as a vehicle by member states inclined to deride and delegitimize the State of Israel.”