The White House announced on Monday that President Donald Trump is not going to be a part of the high-ranking delegation that is scheduled to attend the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
According to Bloomberg, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan is going to lead the delegation at the May 14 ceremony, which also includes the President’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who also serve as senior advisers to Trump.
Since President Trump took office he has tasked Kushner with the leading efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which have hit a virtual standstill.
Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East envoy, is also set to attend the ceremony, as will Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
During his campaign Trump promised that he is going to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But although he fulfilled his core campaign promise, the moving of the embassy sparked anger across the Arab world.
Palestinians consider East Jerusalem to be the capital for their future state, and decades of U.S. policy has said the status of Jerusalem should be decided in peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
If President Trump had decided to be part of the delegation that is attending the ceremony, it would have amplified the protests that are expected to break out around the opening.
Two weeks ago, the President floated the idea that he is considering visiting Jerusalem.
“I may go. I’m very proud of it,” Trump said of the embassy during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Meanwhile, workmen installed black-and-white signs, in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, at the roads that are leading to the U.S. consulate building in south Jerusalem that will be remodeled as the embassy when it is formally relocated from Tel Aviv on May 14.
“This is not a dream. It is reality. I am proud and moved to have hung this morning the first new signs that were prepared for the U.S. Embassy,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat wrote on Twitter.
“This (embassy) move is not only illegal but will also thwart the achievement of a just and lasting peace between two sovereign and democratic states on the 1967 borders, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
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