WASHINGTON The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Joe Biden intends to keep the U.S. Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, where it was relocated during the Trump administration. The issue of where to locate the embassy has been a fixture of negotiations over Israeli and Palestinian territory
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday lambasted the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for its decision to establish jurisdiction to open a war crimes investigation against Israel, calling such a probe “pure antisemitism.” In a forceful English-language video, Netanyahu said that “the court established to prevent atrocities like the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people is now targeting the one state of the Jewish people.”
In a majority ruling published on Friday, following a six-year review by the chief prosecutor, ICC judges said that, “The Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine… extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
US Embassy in Jerusalem
Among the many Senate votes held on Thursday night’s “vote-a-rama” marathon voting session was a decision on whether or not to establish funding which would maintain the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. The vote was for establishing “a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to maintaining the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel.”
97 Senators voted in favor of the amendment introduced by Senators Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (Inhofe Amdt. No. 786). Inhofe said they introduced the amendment to make sure the “U.S. Embassy to Israel remains in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.” But there were three votes that stood out like a sore thumb.
A man walks next to a road sign directing to the US embassy in Jerusalem, February 18, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad.
The US Senate approved an amendment to Friday’s COVID-19 relief package that pledges to keep the US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, reaffirming the 2018 decision by former President Donald Trump to relocate it from Tel Aviv.
The amendment, included in a budget measure approving a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, passed by a 97-3 vote, with only Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) voting against it. The broader pandemic relief measure passed narrowly, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.