Israel’s National Planning and Building Committee has recommended that the US consulate compound in the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem be granted a special exemption, permitting the US to upgrade the facility into an embassy in time for the planned May 14th relocation deadline.
The decision comes a week after Israeli and US State Department officials expressed concern that Israeli bureaucracy and local zoning regulations could seriously delay the planned relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Last December, President Donald Trump ordered the embassy moved to Jerusalem, fulfilling his 2016 campaign promise to implement the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, a bipartisan law requiring that the US embassy in Israel be located in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson initially claimed the embassy move would take roughly two years, but later backtracked and said that plans to complete the move in even three years were “ambitious”.
In February, however, the State Department said that it would transfer its Israeli mission to Jerusalem in two stages.
The first stage would see the US consulate building in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood designated as the new embassy. Ambassador David Friedman’s office would be transferred to the Arnona facility, along with a limited number of other staff members.
The remaining embassy operations would be relocated to the new embassy sometime around late 2019, after an annex to the Arnona facility is refitted to serve as part of the new embassy.
US officials had set a May 14th opening date for the new embassy – coinciding with Israel’s 70th Independence Day. READ MORE
