In a speech before the Israeli parliament, US Vice President Mike Pence said that the US embassy will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of 2019 and called on the Palestinians to join direct peace talks with Israel.
The vice president’s timeline drastically cuts previous White House estimates of three to four years for the controversial embassy move.
“In the weeks ahead, our administration will advance its plan to open the US Embassy in Jerusalem – and the embassy will open before the end of next year,” Pence said.
Pence is the first senior US official to visit the contested city since President Donald Trump sparked Palestinian protests and international condemnation by declaring it Israel’s capital and announcing the embassy move.
His speech – full of biblical imagery and met with rousing applause from Israeli lawmakers – was slammed by top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as “messianic.”
Holding posters saying “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine,” Israeli Arab lawmakers stood up during the start of Pence’s speech in protest and were then shoved out of the Knesset chamber by ushers amid shouts.
Pence’s two-day visit comes at a low-point in Washington’s relationship with the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials are boycotting Pence’s visit and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that the US is now disqualified from its decades-long role as the main mediator between Israelis and Palestinians.
Pence called on the Palestinians to “return to the table,” and said the US supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “if the parties agree.”
“Peace can only come through dialogue,” Pence said.
Trump’s December 6 Jerusalem declaration, which included a promise to move the US embassy, upended decades of US policy towards the divided holy city.
Palestinians saw the move as endorsing Israeli control of East Jerusalem, which they claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Erekat, in a tweet, said the speech proved “that the US Administration is part of the problem rather than the solution.”
Israelis meanwhile welcomed Pence, declaring Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as historic.
Netanyahu addressed Pence in English as “my good friend Mike” and said that “no other American vice president has had a greater commitment to Israel and its people.”
Netanyahu said Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is among the most important moments in Zionist history.
In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, now home to over 300,000 Palestinians, and later annexed the territory in a move that was not internationally recognized.
Deepening Palestinian resentment, Washington announced last week that it is withholding 65 million dollars from the UN refugee agency responsible for Palestinians.
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the main Israeli Arab party, called Pence on Twitter “a dangerous racist whose presence here is only to harm any possibility of peace.”
Later on Monday, Pence and his wife Karen will have dinner with Netanyahu and his wife Sara at the prime minister’s residence.
On Tuesday, Pence will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jewish prayer. Israeli officials will not accompany the vice president to the holy site, which is located in territory claimed by Palestinians.
Pence’s Israel visit is the last leg of a regional tour that included stops in Jordan and Egypt.
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