While the White House backs away from moving the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, breaking a repeatedly stated campaign promise, a group of Republican Senators introduced a resolution this week to eventually get the job done.
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“I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this resolution,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz released in a statement. “It is time for the United States to implement a law that Congress passed more than two decades ago, formally recognize Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, and move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
The resolution, introduced by Senators Cruz, Graham, Rubio and Heller, formally declares Jerusalem the capitol of Israel. You can read the text below:
Whereas each sovereign nation, under international law and custom, may designate its own capital;
Whereas, since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel;
Whereas the city of Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s President, Parliament, Supreme Court, and the site of numerous government ministries and social and cultural institutions;
Whereas the city of Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Judaism and is also considered a holy city by members of other religious faiths;
Whereas Jerusalem must remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected as they have been by Israel since 1967;
Whereas, this year, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and reaffirm the congressional sentiment that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city;
Whereas every citizen of Israel should have the right to reside anywhere in the undivided city of Jerusalem;
Whereas the President and the Secretary of State should publicly affirm as a matter of United States policy that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel;
Whereas the President should immediately implement the provisions of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104–45) and begin the process of relocating the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem;
Whereas United States officials should refrain from any actions that contradict United States law on this subject; and
Whereas any official document of the United States Government which lists countries and their capital cities should identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—
(1) it should be the policy of the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel both de jure and de facto; and
(2) the United States Embassy should be relocated to Jerusalem.
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